Goode High School for Adolescent Criminals
by PegasusHydra
Summary: Percy Jackson is sent to the famous Goode High for Adolescent Criminals by his stepfather Gabe. He's desperate to get out of there and to show that he's not a criminal like everyone thinks... but he mixes in with them perfectly. He meets a girl with startling gray eyes, and starts to see the darker side of this school. Rated T for mentions of drug and abuse.
1. Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, Percy. I really am," my mom said.

"Its fine, Mom," I said. "It's not your fault. It's Gabe's."

I'm Percy Jackson. I'm a pretty troubled kid, or teen. Whatever you prefer. I cause a lot of trouble, and get kicked out of schools almost every year or more. Obviously, my grades are awful, and cause a lot of trouble outside of school too.

My mom, Sally Jackson, is one of the nicest people in the world, but married to the biggest jerk ever, Gabe Ugliano. Gabe had a job in Queens, but mostly worked at home, and it was a wonder that he still had the job. He usually played poker all day with his drinking buddies. He'd not the best fatherly figure there is. He expects me to provide his gambling funds and buy his beer and all that (and got in trouble for that too), which is our "man secret."

I don't know who my father is, and my mom gets all sad when she talks about him. She said that I look like him, with my unruly black hair and green eyes. He must've been a nice man, but I held some resentment towards him for leaving my mom. They didn't contact each other after he left—which was before I was born.

I'm really glad that Gabe's not my dad, or else I would've looked a hundred times uglier than I am now. And it would hurt my pride that a pig like him was my dad. I don't even want to think about the possibilities.

"We'll run away," she said. "Before school starts. We still have about a week left."

"But to where?" I asked. I wasn't against the idea—I was totally up for it, especially since I found out that he hits my mom. But we had so many problems like shelter and financial problems.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I can try to do some more part-time jobs to earn some more money… After that, well, I can try contacting your dad. He'll help us, I'm sure of it."

My bedroom door burst open, and some unread books and blank homework fell to the ground as it hit the wall.

"Planning on running away, huh?" Gabe snarled.

"Oh, Gabe!" my mom jumped. "Oh, no it's not that. We were just discussing some—"

"Story ideas," I finished, glaring at Gabe.

"Yes!" my mom said. "You know, I told you that I wanted to be an author."

"Sure," he said. His putrid odor reached my nose and spread throughout my room. "Thinking about contacting your dad, punk? Not going to happen."

I stayed silent.

"And you want a fatherly figure? What did I do that was not like a parent?" he growled.

I gulped. I hoped this was just a coincidence and he never listened to the things I talked about with my mom. "Well, first of all," I said, gathering up my courage, "you expose your son to gambling at a very young age, second, you expect me to _pay_ your gambling bills and buy you beer. You also don't do anything to help my education, and lastly, you hit my mom!"

"Gabe," my mom said softly, despite the shock she must be feeling. "At least that much is wrong. Just admit it."

"So I'm the only one who did wrong things?" he yelled. "That brat does other things he shouldn't be doing!"

I turned pale as he brought out the drugs. Yeah, I do drugs. I started them since I entered high school because of the stress from school and at home. As far as I knew, no one knew about it, but turns out that Gabe found out.

"He did drugs for more than a year, Sally," he said smugly. "He's even part of a gang from his high school that he got kicked out of. You know, the street gangs that do graffiti and all that stuff. So I grounded him, or gave him the proper treatment that was deserved!"

My mom looked at me with wide eyes. She was finding out way too many things right now. "Percy…"

"And you want me to do something fatherly?" Gabe said, and I smelled the scent of beer and other nasty things all the way over here. "I'll give him a chance and send him to a boarding school for troubled kids like him!"

"Gabe, no!" my mom cried. "We've been over this! We're done with all the boarding schools. _Please._"

He glared at me with his pudgy eyes. "Out you go, punk."

"You can't just kick me out of my own room!" I protested.

I felt a sharp ringing pain in my gut. "Yes I can, and you _will_ listen to me," he growled. He pointed to the door, and when I didn't leave, he gave me another punch in the gut.

I rolled into a ball on the floor, and my mom just stayed there, helpless, with tears coming out of her eyes. Gabe kicked me out—literally—and shut the door behind me.

I ignored the pain and pressed my ear to the door.

"Gabe, that was too much," my mom said. "You can't just hit your own child like that."

"He's not my son," he said. "He's a disgrace to the human population."

_As you are,_ I thought.

"We agreed not to send him to any more boarding schools," my mom said.

That happened a few years ago when I accidently flooded a boarding school, and of course Gabe got mad. Then he pretended that he was fine with it, and suggested that we should have some "family time" to get my brain on the right track.

"Well, he's a troubled kid, and I'm being nice about that," Gabe snapped, and there was a sharp sound, like someone being slapped.

"He's not," my mom defended. "Show me some more proof."

"Why? The fact that he does drugs and is part of a gang doesn't trouble you?"

"It does," she said. "But—"

"Well, there you go," he snapped. "Problem solved."

"But Gabe!" she said. "We're already planning on enrolling him in another school!"

"Then here's the good news. I already got him enrolled," he snarled.

The door handle moved and I ran over to the kitchen and pretended like I was grabbing something to eat.

"Hey, punk," Gabe said, narrowing his pig-like eyes. "Pack your things. You're leaving."

"No I'm not," I said stubbornly. "I'm not going to that boarding school. I'm staying at home."

But at the same time, I doubted it. I'd been waiting forever to leave Gabe. But whenever I was sent to a boarding school, I was too worried about my mom.

"Come on Percy," my mom said wiping off all her tears. "Do as your father says."

"He's not my father," I grumbled but followed her back into my room anyway.

"Your stepfather then," she amended.

My mom closed the door behind us.

"You overheard everything, didn't you?" she asked. She rummaged around my closet and pulled out my old bag that I used in my boarding school times.

"Yeah," I admitted. "Does Gabe know?"

She shrugged. "I'm not too sure myself. You know how he is. He's pretty dull."

I hid a smile. There's another thing that would've hindered my body if he was my father; I would be even stupider than I am now.

"But why am I leaving now?" I asked. "School doesn't start until like a few more weeks!"

"They don't let any students out, even on break," my mom said. "It's actually a well-known school for criminals."

My blood turned cold. I wasn't a criminal. Far from it—not that I was innocent. I was far from being innocent too.

"Am I really a criminal?" I asked quietly as I threw some clothes into my bag.

"Oh, honey," my mom said. "You're not, and I'm not lying. Trust me."

"I do," I sighed. "I'm just worried about what'll happen to you when I'm gone."

"Oh, I'll be fine," she said quickly. "I'll work some more to earn more money. Then we can do you-know-what."

She smiled, and all that anger melted from inside of me. Every time my mom smiled, she made me feel so much happier. And she didn't smile for nearly the whole day.

"Thanks for everything, Mom," I smiled.

"Just because Gabe said that doesn't mean I'm giving up on it," she whispered. "You know what? I'll make you some of my chocolate chip cookies before you leave."

My eyes widened. "Will they be blue?"

"Of course," she laughed. "Hurry up and pack up, okay?"

She left my room and I felt so much gloomier right after she left as if she took the happiness with her. I stuffed my toothbrush somewhere between my clothes. I'd probably find it later. I grabbed some pencils and pens and stuffed them somewhere… I didn't want to lose all of them again.

"Am I really a criminal?" I mumbled absently. I had always told myself that doing all the bad things was okay because it was a way to relieve my stress. That didn't mean I hated it. It was relieving and fun once in a while—hanging out with the gang, not taking drugs. I had no idea how to make drugs "fun."

I looked at the bottle of drugs that Gabe threw on my bed. I held it in my hands, wondering if I should take it or not.

"Percy!" my mom called. "The cookies are ready!"

I looked at the bottle of drugs.

"I'm not a criminal or anything like that," I told myself and dumped it back on the bed.

I'm just taking it one step at a time.

* * *

"Dig in, Percy," my mom said ruffling my hair. "After this, I'm taking you to your new school."

My cookie stopped halfway to my mouth and I scowled. "Yes, Mom."

The happiness from the blue cookies melted away just like that. She made it for me ever since I was little, even before Gabe came. I stopped munching on my cookie as I tried to hold onto that memory.

"Nope, I'm taking you," Gabe said.

"Uh, I'd rather have my mom take me," I said.

"I'm taking you to your new school. You wanted me to do something fatherly."

"Then as a father, listen to my request about letting my mom take me," I argued.

"Sally, you stay here. I'm taking this runt to school," he said.

"What, no!" I protested.

"To the car," he said.

He grabbed my hair with his meaty hand and dragged me out the door. The last I saw of my mom was her sad face as the door slammed shut in my face. He kept dragging me to his stinky old car and shoved my in the shotgun seat (unfortunately). Now I had to smell more of his stinky odor on our way to school.

"You should be pleased that I didn't tell your mom everything," Gabe growled.

"What did I do then?" I challenged.

Gabe swerved a left, and my head slammed against the window.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Watch it. How'd you even get your driver's license like this? Did you threaten them or something?"

"Shut your mouth," he said. "You should be glad that I didn't tell her about what you do on the streets, running around with a gun!'

"I didn't _kill_ anyone!" I snapped. "Maybe I shot some people, but I made sure they were _minor_ injuries. And go ahead and regale me on all my adventures with my little street gang."

Gabe glared at me and swerved the car on every single turn until we finally arrived at the school.

* * *

"I'm going to get a concussion one day because of you," I grumbled. "And I'm going to press charges."

Gabe rolled his eyes and dragged me to the school.

The school was a big white building that said _Goode High School for Adolescent Criminals _in blue letters on the top. Apparently it was a famous school, but it was the first time _I've _heard of it.

Gabe burst in through the doors like he owned the place, and I sighed and followed him. I didn't want anyone seeing me following this pig, but oh well.

He found the office quickly, considering his tiny brain, and shoved me in first.

"Who is it?" a guy—probably the principal—drawled. "What do you want?"

The guy had a face similar to Gabe's, probably meaning that he was an alcoholic. He had a pudgy face and curly black hair that reminded me of cherubs. His eyes were full of madness, and he had the weirdest fashion sense ever.

"I'm a new student here," I said, when Gabe punched me in the back. "This is my stepfather Gabe Ugliano."

I gagged when I said his name. He even had the word _ugly_ in his name to show that natural characteristic.

"I'm Mr. D, the principal," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to be glad that you're here."

"Trust me. I'm not glad to be here either," I grumbled.

Gabe and I pulled up two seats as Mr. D talked in his annoying voice about the school and how you're not allowed to leave, and how certain people aren't allowed to leave even after graduating. He talked like Gabe actually. Just a bit… less… uh, offensive? I'd never thought I'd say that, but there you go.

"So what are you waiting for kid? Introduce yourself. I don't have all day!" Mr. D snapped.

"I'm Percy Jackson," I said. I was hating this guy more and more as the seconds ticked on.

"I knew that, Peter," Mr. D said, causing my jaw to drop. "Now leave while I talk to your stepfather over here."

I left the office, and I was wondering who would snap first, Gabe or Mr. D. Or maybe they'd get along just fine, considering that they were both alcoholics.

I stood outside like an idiot with my bags at my feet. I saw a girl with blond hair pass by the office. She gave me a hard look as she walked by.

"Come in Pierre," Mr. D ordered.

I sat back in my seat with my bags. "It's Percy," I said.

He ignored me. "Here's your dorm key," he said throwing me a dusty key with a little plastic tag that said Room 03G. "The boys' dorms are on the west wing, second floor. Don't get lost, not that I care, really. Classes start in two weeks."

Mr. D kicked me out of the room and continued talking with Gabe. I rolled by eyes and lugged my bags upstairs. And naturally, the rooms were in descending order so I had to go nearly all the way to the back of the long hallway. Seriously. Is it necessary to have like hundreds of rooms just for the boys?

I stopped at a blue door with 03 written on it in gold. I shoved my key in the lock and went in.

The room was pretty spacious, considering it was only a dorm room. There was a restroom connected to the room, and there was a bunk bed over on the right side of the wall. There was a desk on the other side, right next to the window, and a closet on the right. But the room was really dusty.

I closed the door behind me and dumped my bags on the foot of the bed and sighed. Now I was locked in this school forever.

* * *

**So this is my new story I'll be mostly working on now. It was either this or the Pirate AU, but I used a randomizer and got this. Personally, I would've liked the Pirate AU better, but this is fine too. Haha. I'm so sorry about how this chapter turned out though. It's not as good as I wanted it to be, but some suggestions on how to improve would be nice. I'll try to make my next chapter better than this one.**

**P.S. It's probably very obvious, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I obviously don't know much about gangs and drugs and stuff. So I'm gonna put a sorry note right here, because many things will probably be inaccurate. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited this story! I didn't think it would get much attention. Haha.**

**Sora Loves Rain- Poor Percy. Yeah, I hate Gabe too. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you too much.  
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**Kelly (Guest)- Thanks. I hope you enjoy this chapter, at least a little bit. Haha.  
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**Sorry there isn't much going on in this chapter. There'll be some more "action" in the next chapter, probably. I had to fill in how the school works and whatnot, so there's my excuse. I'm going to try to update every other day, or at least once this week (this week's the last week of my jazz camp). I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

I started unpacking my things which took _hours._ I didn't bother organizing my clothes in the closet. I just threw them on the floor of the closet; shirts on the right, pants on the left, and everything else in between in the middle.

I didn't bring any books, so that was good. I found my toothbrush inside a dirty shirt that reeked of moldy pizza like Gabe had used it to wipe the table (although he'd be too lazy to do it). I threw that away.

I left some stuff unpacked in my bags like my school things and started cleaning the room. I used the stinky shirt to wipe some of the dust off. It made my room stink like moldy pizza and other nasty things, but it did the job of wiping off the dust. I wiped off the desk which actually turned out to be black, not gray, and the walls were actually a sea-green. I brought out the bed sheets outside the room and brushed the dust off. I felt sorry for whoever the janitor was.

If this school even _had_ one.

I couldn't concentrate on cleaning though. Seriously, who even wants to be dusting the floor, the restroom, the toilet, and heck, I had to even clean the ceiling! I coughed as the dust came raining down. Great. Now I had to clean the floor again.

"Forget it!" I mumbled. I flopped down on the bed, and jumped back up. The mattress was like rock. And the sheets were dirty again. Drat.

I yelled in frustration and kicked my bag across the room. It stopped halfway to the door.

_Knock, knock._

I groaned and opened the door. "Who is it?"

A scrawny looking guy with bad acne greeted me in front of the door. "You're Percy Jackson, the new kid, right?"

I nodded. "And you are?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm Grover. Nice to meet you," he said shaking my hand. He didn't seem like anyone to cause a crime. "I just wanted to say, tomorrow, I can give you a tour of the school. I mean, if you want to."

"Sure, that'd be great," I said.

Grover smiled. "Great! Oh, and just saying, each room has their own mailbox thing right by their door." He motioned to a rusty old-fashioned mailbox. "It's how Mr. D gets in contact with certain students without actually talking to them, though sometimes they're used for other purposes too, like for news and stuff. And don't worry. No one looks through your mailbox."

"Okay," I said. "Thanks."

"And, um, it's getting late, so I'll talk to you tomorrow," Grover said. "My room's 12G, if I happen to oversleep tomorrow."

I nodded, and he trotted back to his room, which thankfully wasn't too far from mine. I looked in my mailbox and found a thick packet with words. I groaned, and brought it with me back into my room.

It was dark outside already. I had spent the last couple of hours cleaning and unpacking my things. And now I was going to stay up all night reading this packet. I flicked on the lights.

The first page said the things that I already knew—about not being able to leave the school and whatnot—except in fancier words. I had wasted two hours and a half on that page. The second page talked about rules.

I sighed and closed my eyes for a minute. The words were swimming around in my head. The letters were changing their order and making new nonexistent words in my head. I stayed like that for a while then tried to read again.

"Rules," I read out loud. "'1. Boys are not allowed to go into the girls' dorms, and girls aren't allowed to go in the boys. Simple as that, brats. Why would you even want to go in the other dorms anyway?'"

I frowned. Obviously Mr. D wrote this. The first page, probably someone else.

"'2. St-stewards—no, students,'" I corrected. "'Students are not a-allied. Students are not _allowed_ to leave their rooms after 10. And don't even try snorkeling—_sneaking_—out for midnight snacks.'"

I threw the paper down, and leaned against the wall. It was too _hard._ And Mr. D's annoying comments didn't help either. I moved to my desk and tried again.

"'3. If caught, students will have a week worth of dentures—_detention._ It-It'll be fun to watch,'" I read. "Well, it won't be fun for someone to watch me _read!"_

"'4. No profanity,'" I said. Mr. D started cussing, which I won't repeat. "'—it. Who the—even cares about that rule?'"

Breaking his own rule in the same line. How convenient.

"'5. Letters and other problems—_packages_—must be checked or scanned because—_before_—being accepted or sent out. Don't even think about sending in-invitations—_inappropriate—_things."

I leaned back in my chair and stretched. I looked at the digital clock placed conveniently on the desk. 1:48. School hasn't even started yet and I'm already about to pull a late nighter. I'd ask Grover for the rules tomorrow.

I went to the restroom and changed into a baggy blue shirt and gray sweatpants. I looked for my toothbrush, but then I remembered that I threw it away because it was in my really disgusting shirt that I also threw away. I groaned and looked around if they supplied you with any toothbrushes.

I wasted 10 minutes doing that. I ended up using my finger as a toothbrush instead. I know it's disgusting, but I felt like being clean. I didn't eat a whole lot today (I only ate oh—six pancakes, five chocolate chip cookies, three candy bars, and a bag of chips.) but I didn't want to be like Gabe. There you go.

"Finally, sleep," I said. The clock said 2:24. Great.

I turned off the lights and flopped onto the bed until I remembered something. I didn't clean the sheets again.

* * *

I woke up to a sound of rapid knocking. "You want to stop, Gabe?" I yelled and sat up.

Then I remembered. I wasn't at home. I was at Goode High. I looked at the clock. 7:58. I buried my head in my hands for a few seconds, then opened the door.

"Sorry, Percy," Grover said with wide eyes at the door.

"Nah, I'm sorry," I said. "I thought I was at home, you know?"

Grover loosened up. "Oh, yeah. You might want to hurry up and get changed. Breakfast is starting soon."

"Yeah, I should," I stretched. "Come in if you want. I'm going to go change."

I turned around and Grover came in. "Why are your clothes dirty? Not to be rude or anything…"

I laughed as I grabbed a shirt and jeans from the closet. "I got my bed dirty again while cleaning my room, and I just fell asleep without cleaning it again."

Grover rolled his eyes while I went to go change. I came out a moment later in a green shirt and jeans.

"Let's go," Grover said.

"Yeah, I'm starving. I didn't eat a proper dinner last night," I said. As we were leaving the dorm, I asked him, "You mind telling me the rules? I tried reading that packet, but I have dyslexia. I gave up on rule four."

"Right," Grover said. "So basically, no stealing, no drugs—they check your dorms once a week for cleanliness and banned items—no phones, no food in dorms—but everyone breaks that rule anyway—and nothing really important other than that. It's just the classic banned items and actions."

"Oh," I mumbled. "Looks like I'll be having detention forever then."

Grover laughed. "We get to write letters once a week to our families, which is as nice as they'll ever get. Rules for school will be explained once classes start."

I nodded, wonder if it was even possible to be expelled from a school of criminals.

"And this is our mess hall," Grover said.

The mess hall was on the ground floor and was brightly lit by ceiling lights. Food was placed on buffet-style trays. There were wooden tales placed all around the mess hall—basically, it looked like a mess hall no one would think would exist in this school.

"Wow," I muttered.

"This school has many rich sponsors," Grover explained. "The food's great too! For breakfast, we just grab a small something and just walk around with it, but you're always welcome to sit down and eat too."

I waited in the line of students and grabbed a bagel and a cookie. Grover grabbed a simple apple.

"Let me tell you more about the school," Grover said. "And show you some other places."

We exited the mess hall and he pointed to the right. "The restrooms are there, if you need to go during school days or if the toilet in your room isn't functioning or anything."

"Speaking of the restroom," I said, "do you know where I can get a toothbrush? I threw mine away."

"I won't even ask," Grover laughed. "Yeah, they have a little store here since we're not allowed to go outside. I'll show you right now."

He led me outside. "Don't you ever get angry about not being able to leave?"

Grover shrugged. "Yeah. We all did. But we got over it eventually."

He showed me store which was a little shack with a blue roof.

"You need money to buy things, but you can always ask someone to steal them for you," Grover said.

He waved over two boys in the corner, laughing. "This is Connor and Travis Stoll."

"Hey," one of them said, I couldn't tell who. "New kid right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm Percy." I didn't even bother telling Grover that he was showing me how to break the rule as soon as he told them to me.

"Oh yeah, if you're wondering which is which," the other said rolling his eyes. "I'm Travis, the older and taller one, and that's Connor, the younger and shorter one."

Connor rolled his eyes at him. "I'm not _that_ short."

"Can you steal us some things from the store?" Grover asked. "It's for Percy."

Travis grinned. "That's our specialty."

I could already figure out why they were sent here.

"So what do you need?" he asked.

"Um, a toothbrush and some soap," I said.

"And a uniform," Grover added.

My jaw dropped. "We even have a uniform in this blasted school?"

"Just wear when you attend class," Connor advised. "And change right after. That's what most of us do."

"Be right back," Travis said. "You guys owe us, by the way."

They went in the store and there was laughing and screaming from inside. The Stolls came out a moment after, laughing.

"That was _awesome,_" Travis said, with the biggest grin ever.

"Yeah," Connor said and tossed me my things. "Did you see her face? Oh my gods, it was really funny."

"Come on Percy," Grover said, pulling me from my daze.

"So classes are over in that other building," Grover said, pointing to a building a bit smaller than the main building.

"Why can't they just place classes in this building?" I asked.

"They don't want new people to see what's going on," Grover said. "It's hard to explain. There's also mandatory activities you can do outside of the buildings to show that we can produce things instead of doing just bad things like criminals. But the activities are mostly student-run."

"Since Mr. D doesn't really care about our education," I guessed. I also guessed that this was as far as they were going to let us out. Heck, there was even a really high brick wall so that we couldn't climb over of see what was going on in the "outside world."

Grover nodded and showed me the inside of the building. "There's another restroom here if you really need it, but almost everyone uses the other one since they get to waste more time like that."

"Hey, but you know how you said that we need money to buy things from the store?" I asked, and he nodded. "How do you even get the money?"

Grover shrugged. "I don't know. But some students just seem to conjure money out of nowhere. And you're allowed to receive money from whoever sends it to you from the outside."

Grover pointed out a few more places while casually avoiding the other students.

"The library's on the second floor," Grover said. "And if you want to sign up for the activities, they all have their respective classes on the second floor too, not that there's many." He glanced at the clock. "Sorry, but I need to be going. You can look around some more. I'll see you at lunch."

He ran off outside again, leaving me alone.

"So you're the new kid?" someone asked, sizing me up.

I nodded. "What's it to you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Watch what you say here. You're going to be beaten to pulp here soon enough."

He shoved me roughly aside and walked off, and I wondered if I was going to be the loser here again. _To be a loser of the losers,_ I thought.

Then I saw a flash of blond near the stairs. I frowned, wondering if it was the blond girl I saw yesterday. It was strange, because she looked like she was sneaking around. I followed her up the stairs and saw her slip into the library.

Just when I took a step in, I was met by a series of (strong) punches. I didn't even have a chance to defend myself or see what was going on. She knocked me in the head and I started losing consciousness. I briefly wondered if there was even a librarian here and if they even noticed or cared about someone getting beat up in the library.

"You'd better shut your mouth or else," she hissed. "I was never here, and neither were you. So shut it."

She set me aside and I blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! This is just a quick question, but are any of you gonna to PJO ship weeks? It seems fun, but I don't know if I'm gonna do it. Maybe, if I'm really bored. Haha.**

**Thank you for all of those who favorited/followed this story. I didn't think it would get that much attention, but it's doing great, compared to my other stories. Thanks again. :)**

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**TheKookieKing11- Yeah, sorry that she was a bit OOC in the previous chapter. She's not usually like that, but that will be explained later in other future chapters when they officially meet.  
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* * *

"Get up Percy! Get up!" Grover said shaking me.

I opened my eyes, my head hurting like crazy. "Uhh?"

"I leave you for a few minutes, and I find you passed out next to the restrooms!" Grover panicked.

"I'm where?" I groaned, standing up.

I was, indeed, right next to the restrooms. Let's just say that it didn't smell so nice. But it didn't make sense. I was at the library, not the restrooms. And there was that girl who beat me up in the first place… I decided not to mention her.

Grover shook his head, his curly hair flying all over the place. "I was at the environmental class meeting—you know those activities we have to partake in? And you went to go explore, and I came to see where you were—you weren't in your room—and I found you here."

"Huh," I said.

"Percy, did anything happen?"

"Nope," I lied.

Grover gave me a weird look, like he knew that I was hiding something. Then again, I was one of the worst liars in history. "Fine."

"Is it time for lunch yet?" I asked. Getting beat up made me hungry.

"In an hour," he said. "I'll introduce you to some people and the activities."

He took me back upstairs—I just hoped that the girl wasn't there. Grover showed me the rooms where you sign up. There was music (he didn't recommend that because although there are instruments, there's also some really awful singers in there that bust your eardrums), art (he also didn't recommend that if I didn't want my hair shaved off or permanent marker all over my face), and the other "safer" options being study hall and environmental.

"No sports?" I asked.

"Yeah," Grover said. "Dunno why, but the gym's always open, and we have a really hard PE coach that'll make you not want to do PE for the rest of your life. I think it's because they're afraid that we'll harm each other or break the building down."

I laughed. "Well, the students are finding more creative ways harm people."

"I'd suggest the environmental class, but it doesn't seem like your type," Grover said. "You probably want to do study hall instead. You just work on your homework and other work. There's a lot of people in it."

"It seems like the best choice," I agreed.

"But I'll introduce you to some people. Come on," he said dragging me to the environmental classroom.

There were more people than I thought in the environmental class.

"Hey guys," Grover said. "I wanted you to meet Percy. Percy, meet the class."

The students there seemed pretty nice. Grover introduced me to Katie Gardner, a girl around my age with black hair and brown eyes. She also worked part-time at the school store to give a hint that she wasn't that bad of a person. Apparently she was working at the store the time the Stoll brothers decided to break in.

"Nice to meet you Percy," she smiled, shaking my hand. She seemed pretty nice.

"Don't make her mad though. She can get mean and violent," Grover whispered.

Katie heard, but just laughed it off.

Then there was Katie's cousin, Miranda Gardiner, who looked similar to her. She had slightly darker hair, and lighter eyes.

The other person Grover introduced me to was Juniper.

"Percy, this is Juniper," he said. "Juniper, Percy."

Juniper was petite, and had wispy amber hair the color of tree sap with leaf-green eyes.

"Hey," she said.

I was about to say "Hey" back, but there was a loud crash, and Grover jumped. "I'm gonna go see what that was." He raced off.

Juniper rolled her eyes. "Oh, Grover."

I noticed a small smile on her face accompanied with a slight blush. "You like him?"

Juniper blushed even more. "Oh, please don't tell Grover that! It's already weird, crushing on someone that you met at a school for _criminals."_

"I won't," I promised.

Grover came running back. "Sorry. A rabbit came out of its cage." He shuddered. "Rabbits."

"You're scared of rabbits?"

Grover huffed. "Yeah. You have a problem with it?"

"No," I said stifling a laugh. "But we should get going. Bye, Juniper!"

Grover repeated the same thing, and we left the environmental classroom.

"It's hard to believe that some of you guys are criminals," I said. "No offense."

Grover nodded. "But you know, some were framed or had a bad lawyer and stuff. Please don't ask about lawyers or anything. I'm not too knowledgeable on law or lawyers or politics."

"I don't blame you," I said, remembering when we were learning about the government. "What's next?"

"I'll show you a few people from art and music," he said. "You said that you're going to be in study hall, so you might as well just meet them yourself."

We started with art, and Grover was really eager to get out of there as soon as possible, so I only met this one girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She had frizzy red hair and bright green eyes. Grover knew her too, because she actively supported the projects the environmental class did.

Grover quickly pulled me out of that room when he saw a group of students take out a box of scissors.

"Thank the gods we got out of there," Grover said.

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe they just needed to cut something."

"That something could be us!"

He showed me the music room which was extremely loud, with really bad singers—not that I was good at singing anyway.

I met Lee Fletcher who played the lyre and his distant cousin, Michael Yew, who played the electric guitar.

"You might want to get out of here, quick," Lee chuckled, as Michael tried to play over the singers.

"We will," Grover said, and dragged me out of there again. He closed the door. "It's soundproof."

My ears were still ringing, but I nodded.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said.

He walked over to the study hall classroom which was empty, and quickly signed me up for the class. "I mean about getting beat up, not the music class."

"Oh. Yeah," I said. "A few bruises here and there, but I've been through worse."

I got into fights with Gabe a lot when he started to get physical, but my mom didn't know about until yesterday. And I was part of a gang, and we weren't exactly the friendly type.

Grover gave me a questioning look.

I sighed. "Fine. Maybe some more bruises, and maybe my body still aches. But it's not too bad."

"Sure," he shrugged.

We decided to hang out a bit outside near the environment class's garden. Grover was telling me more about himself and the school, and started talking about Juniper a bit.

"Hey, new kid," someone said.

I looked up, and saw that it was the guy who shoved me in the hall earlier. He had eyes like Gabe and shaggy black hair. I noticed that one of his front teeth were chipped.

"What do you want?" I said. It wasn't the smartest move, but this guy seemed like a big bully.

The guy bared his teeth. "I'm Matt Sloan," he said, as if it was supposed to scare me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Go on." Grover was sending me a warning look.

"You need to learn how things go around here," he snarled.

He threw a punch at me, but this time I was ready. I grabbed his fist and twisted his arm. He growled to cover his pain, and threw a punch with his other hand. His fist made contact with my face, and I winced. He kicked my left shin, and I fell. He grinned, and I grinned back. I swept my leg out and he fell on his face in the grass.

"You…" he growled.

"Save yourself the humiliation, Sloan," I said.

He opened his mouth to say something, but just left.

"Percy, you should be more careful," Grover chided. "If this keeps going on, you're going to die during the school year!"

"I'm fine," I said, wiping some blood off my mouth. "No one saw that, right?"

"I distracted the staff," he said. "Don't expect me to do it too much though."

"Thanks," I said. "You're the best."

Grover smiled. "You might want to get cleaned up before you go to lunch. There's probably going to be at least one teacher there."

"I don't have a first-aid kit," I said dumbly.

"Let's go ask Lee to fix you up," Grover said. "He's a great healer."

So there we went, going back up again.

* * *

"You have really bad luck," Lee said. He had brought Michael with him.

"Is it just today or is it always like this?" Michael added rubbing some alcohol on some other cuts that I got from before.

"Always," I said, squeezing my eyes closed. I hated the pain of rubbing alcohol. It stings more than the wound itself.

Lee rubbed something on bruises that were slowly showing themselves. "Here. Just apply this on your bruises at least once every day. The pain should go away in no time."

"Thanks," I said.

"Anytime Percy," Michael said. "You'd better be careful. Remember, this is a school for criminals. We're just doing the nurse a favor by doing this."

Lee snorted. "If all the injured students went to her, she would have a heart attack."

"Well, we'll see you later, maybe," Grover mumbled.

We left, not wanting to hear about all the patients they've treated. We walked back to the other building, as it was almost time for lunch.

"I'm going to put my stuff in my room," I said. "I'll see you at the tables."

Grover gave me a wary look. "Are you sure you can come back in one piece?"

"Yeah. I'm not a baby," I said. "Seriously. What else can happen?"

Grover laughed and headed off for the cafeteria while I went upstairs. I had to make that long walk back to my room, and I considered throwing my stuff, but thought better of it. I put my toothbrush in the restroom where it belonged, and threw my uniform in the closet. But hey, at least it's clean.

I started walking back to the cafeteria, when a burly girl with stringy brown hair stopped me. There were a few other girls behind her that looked like her goons.

"Hey, newbie," she snarled.

"What do you want?" I sighed. At least she knew that I was new. Her goons laughed.

"We have an initiation ceremony for newbies," she said.

"Does that include getting in a fight with Matt Sloan?" I questioned. I felt like I knew where this was going. "And I have a name you know."

"Whatever, Prissy," she said.

"Percy."

"Whatever," she said again. "So, you fought with Sloan huh? Doesn't look like the type to beat someone up."

I scowled. "Does it matter what I look like?"

"Fine then, Prissy," she said. "Prove it to me."

I got ready to fight, but before I could even do anything, she had her hands around my neck. I tried to kick her and punch her, but it didn't do a thing. She had strong arms—I bet she could beat up every student in this school without breaking a sweat.

"This guy beat Sloan?" she said. "That's hard to believe. Then again, Sloan has no brain, and can be beat by even the simplest of tricks." She looked at me square in the eye. "Is that all you've got?"

She dragged me right past the cafeteria, and I saw where we were going. The restrooms. And these smelled worse than the ones I was passed out next to. She threw open the door of the girls' restroom, and a bad smell of makeup and perfume and some other nasty things overthrew me. I gagged.

And for those of you out there who used to wonder what the girls' restrooms looked like, you don't want to know. Especially the ones at high schools.

The girl opened a stall and grabbed me by my hair.

"Oh, no," I muttered. "You're not going to—"

She started shoving my face down the toilet. I tried to resist, which slowed her down, but not forever.

The bottom of the toilet smelled even worse the restroom itself. It smelled a hundred times worse. I was aware of the girl's goons just standing off to the side and laughing.

"_Is that all you've got?"_

Her words echoed in my ears. No. I wouldn't let someone take control of me. Not after Gabe. I'd prove them all wrong; I'm not a solely bad criminal. I was much more than that.

I roughly rolled to the side, and the girl eventually let go of my hair, though it hurt when she did that. I pushed her into the toilet, but she grabbed my head along with her. I felt like throwing up. I reached to the side and flushed the toilet. I shut my eyes and mouth.

"Ew, gross!" she yelled, and shoved us out of there.

"It wasn't my idea to shove a person's head down a toilet!" I said back. "You think it wasn't disgusting for me too?"

She motioned to her goons who shot dirty looks at me for humiliating their leader, and left the restroom.

The girl paused before leaving. "You're dead, Prissy," she said. "You're so dead."


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. I was kind of in a bad mood, and I'm still in a bad mood. So sorry if this chapter seems like trash.**

**Thank you for those who followed/favorited this story. I didn't get as much reviews, but that's fine.**

**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- I'm going to be skipping some time for the next chapter, so you'll be seeing Annabeth more. At least, that's the plan. :)  
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**Enjoy!**

* * *

I walked into the cafeteria with my head all soggy from the toilet water. It wasn't as bad as that other girl, but I still smelled pretty bad. People stared at me as I found Grover sitting alone at a table.

"I really can't leave you alone for a minute, can I?" he said rolling his eyes.

He gave me an enchilada that he gotten an extra of because Juniper was volunteering in serving lunch.

"Hey, nothing bad happened!" I protested. I took a bite out of my cheese enchilada.

"Nothing bad?" Grover scoffed. "You got in a fight with Clarisse, one of the worst girls at school! And you're drenched in toilet water!"

"It's only my head!"

"Still stinks."

I sighed. He beat me.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Grover mumbled through his enchilada.

"What are you sorry for? There's nothing to be sorry about," I said.

"It's just that, I feel like it's my fault for you getting into all that trouble. I mean, I'm one of the biggest losers in the school!" he said, sounding close to tears.

I felt sad all of a sudden. I've been a loser in school for so long, I didn't even remember what it was like to just be a regular student. "Hey, Grover, it's fine. Don't call yourself a loser. You're my best friend."

I know, it seems kind of stupid to call someone you've only known for a day your best friend, but he was fun to talk to, and seemed so much better than my other school "friends." And he was all I had. And maybe I was all _he_ had.

Grover sniffed. "Thanks, Perce. You're the best."

I looked over and saw the girl with blond hair and gray eyes talking to another guy with blond hair. "Who's she?"

Grover wiped away his tears and followed my gaze. "Her? She's Annabeth Chase. She's like the brain of our school, but she's kind of strange. She's sometimes seen sneaking around, and sometimes just doesn't come to class. She doesn't really have any friends, but she's not a loser. People just think she's a bit… well, unique."

I frowned. "Who's the guy she's talking to?"

"Luke Castellan," he said. "He's a year older than us. He's also kind of a strange character. He's often seen talking to Annabeth, and he's a smuggler. Somehow he seems to be able to sneak out of the school unnoticed, and smuggle in banned items like drugs and whatnot. I'd advise you not to interact with him too much, but then again, how bad can he be?"

I shrugged and finished my enchilada. Grover was looking at the lunch line, as if he was wondering if the wait was worthwhile for another enchilada.

"What are we doing next?" I asked.

"We have therapy time," he said, and I groaned. "It's not as bad as you think. We just gather around and share about who we are and why we're here. And then we just do whatever."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just whatever huh?"

I stood up, and I heard someone yell, "Perseus Jackson!"

I flinched and turned around and saw a teacher that looked like a hag.

"How dare you come in to the cafeteria smelling like a pig?" she said. "Detention for a week."

My jaw fell open. "You can't just give me detention for that! And I don't smell like a pig! The toilet maybe, but not a pig. I'm not the only one either. There's—she's not here."

I stared around in disbelief, but Clarisse wasn't here. Neither were her goons.

"Yes, Mr. Jackson," the teacher said smugly. "Only you. It's not appropriate for the cafeteria. Note all the students that have left because of your smell."

I looked around. People gave me weird looks, but only a few had left. "But classes haven't even started," I tried.

"That's beyond the point, Mr. Jackson."

I rolled my eyes.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Dodds," someone said walking up to us. It was Annabeth. "He's right, and I can prove all your points wrong."

"Would you like to accompany him in his detention, Miss Chase?" Mrs. Dodds asked, but Annabeth didn't waver.

She kept her confident stance. "I know as well as you do that you can't give me detention. It's not fair that you won't give the same treatment to everyone equally. We're here because we did wrong in the world outside, and you're just teaching us more wrong. You're not doing us any good."

Mrs. Dodds huffed and stomped away.

"Percy, you should've known better," Grover trembled. "She's one of the worst teachers here at Goode!"

"Well, I'm meeting a lot of bad people today," I muttered. I looked at Annabeth. "Thanks."

"Don't expect me to do it too often," she said. "Nice meeting you, Jackson."

She walked off. She was one of the few people I didn't manage to get into a fight with. Actually, scratch that. She just beat me up today.

"What did she mean by 'you can't give me detention?'" I asked.

Grover shrugged. "Like I said, she's a bit strange."

The bell rang, signaling that lunch was over.

"So, therapy?" I asked.

Grover nodded. "Room 21."

He led me back to the other building and showed me the room so I won't forget.

"On breaks or vacation we have it once a week, but once classes start, we have it every day for about thirty minutes, kind of like homeroom," Grover said.

He showed me the classroom. It was pretty plain with white walls. It was spacious with some white chairs placed in a circle and a few tables placed in random places throughout the room.

There was a man in a wheelchair taking part in the circle. He had thinning brown hair and bushy eyebrows. His intense brown eyes bore into me, but he seemed pretty nice.

"Hello Grover," he greeted. "Nice to meet you too, Perseus—though I'm sure you'd rather be called Percy."

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Just call me Chiron," he said kindly. "Please sit."

Grover and I took two seats on the other side of the circle.

"You two are early," Chiron observed.

"Yes, I wanted to show Percy around," he said.

"How nice of you," he said. "Percy, if you don't mind, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

I was a bit hesitant, but I started telling him about my family and Smelly Gabe, and how I used to do drugs. Chiron was patient and understanding.

"Well, looks like the others are coming," Chiron said. "You're going to need to tell them about yourself too. You don't need to tell them everything, but open up to them a bit."

I nodded as the others came in. I saw Matt Sloan, Juniper, Rachel, Clarisse, and a few other people. Juniper sat next to Grover, and Sloan and Clarisse cast me dirty looks as they past.

Annabeth came in a bit later, without Luke, I noticed, and sat next to Chiron.

"Is this it?" Chiron asked. No one answered. "All right then, let's get started. For those of you who are new, or forgettable," he said, smiling at Connor, "I'm Chiron Brunner, your vice principal. But please, just call me Chiron. Let's start from the right around. State your name and your reason for being here."

"I'm Charles Beckendorf," a buff African-American guy said. "I came here for accidentally blowing up a bus." The girl next to him let out a laugh.

"I'm Silena Beauregard," a pretty girl with black hair said. "I came here because I kept talking back to people who saying that women should be treated equally, and it got a bit _intense_ after." She lightly laughed it off along with a few other kids.

It went along like that, some clapping for others, and some laughing about it. Some of the reasons were common like doing drugs or illegal activity and whatnot. But some, like Juniper's, who got sent here for people repeatedly reporting her for talking to trees, were interesting.

"I'm Grover Underwood," Grover said. "I got sent here for being held responsible for someone's death."

Grover nudged me, but I stayed silent, in shock. I didn't speak until Chiron said, "Percy?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry," I mumbled, and everyone laughed, but Grover. He looked down at his feet, not looking at me. "I'm Percy Jackson. I came here for doing drugs, being in one of those bad street gangs, and blah blah blah. And my stepfather didn't like me." They laughed.

"Okay," Chiron said. "Next."

And it went on. But I couldn't shake off the fact that Grover was responsible for someone's death. He seemed too _peaceful_ to be here for that kind of reason.

Finally it was Annabeth's turn.

"My name's Annabeth Chase," she said. She had a confident voice. "I'm here because I ran away after an attempted murder of my stepmother."

After everyone's turn, my reason for coming here seemed like one of the least worried about ones. Everyone else's was so much more serious.

"Well, now that we're done with that," Chiron said. "We'd usually do a few more rounds with a different topic, but I'll make it a bit easy for today because we have a new student. All of you may socialize and do whatever as long as you don't wreck anything."

Everyone cheered and got off their seats.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Grover mumbled. "But the way you felt about me, I think, was the same way I felt about you when I found out more about _you._"

"Why are you sorry? There's nothing to be sorry about," I said. "You'll still be my friend, no matter what."

"I'll talk with Grover for now," Juniper said. "Come on."

Grover walked away gloomily.

"Percy," Annabeth said, and I jumped.

"Don't do that!" I said.

"Sorry," she said. "Chiron wanted me to talk with you."

"Why?" I asked.

"To socialize more," she said rolling her eyes. "Apparently that involves talking with you."

"Um… Yeah," I said awkwardly. "You're not going to beat me up again, are you?"

She smirked. "I wish, but no. You must have humiliated Clarisse bad. She's constantly giving you dirty looks."

I looked over and saw Clarisse with a Hispanic guy named Chris. She saw me looking and glared at me. "I can see that."

She smiled, but it faded away quickly. "Did you hear? Someone's being released today."

"Released?" I asked. "As in, leaving the school?"

"Yeah. What else did you think it meant?" she said. "But it's weird how they decide who's getting released. Some students aren't allowed to leave, even after finishing high school, yet there's some who are allowed to leave. And there are the ones who get released randomly from time to time."

"Why?" I said.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to find out, along with some other things," she said.

"Like…?" I questioned.

"I'm not going to say," she said, "at least, not yet. Chiron's coming over. Pretend like we're just talking and having a fun time."

Chiron wheeled over to us, and I laughed. "So, that's the story behind it?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. Weird, I know."

Chiron smiled at Annabeth approvingly and wheeled away.

"Can I talk normally now?" I said.

She laughed and nodded. "I don't talk to many people usually. I'm not trying to, I'm just too busy."

_Trying to find out something,_ I guessed. I changed the subject. "Why'd you beat me up earlier? I mean, you _were_ the girl who beat me up at the library right?"

"Beat you up?" she said. She stayed silent for a moment, probably trying to remember. I wondered if she beats up people on a daily basis. "Oh yeah. I was afraid that you were going to tell someone that I was there."

"And how is that a big deal?" I said, secretly a bit miffed that I'd gotten beaten up.

"Not important," she said dismissively.

"Everyone, class is over!—if you can call it a class," Chiron said lightly.

We laughed and ran for the door.

"I'll see you around Percy," Annabeth said. Her face had a mask of seriousness over it again. "Try not to get into detention. You'll regret it."

She ran along with the mob.

"What was that about?" Grover asked.

I shook my head. "I don't even know."


	5. Chapter 5

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**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- "I don't know." -Percy  
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* * *

Classes were finally starting. During the rest of the time before classes started, news got spread that I was the new loser that everybody should pick on. Some just picked on me, while a few others picked on both me and Grover. Like Nancy Bobofit.

Nancy was a kleptomaniac with red hair and orange freckles. She wasn't as good as the Stolls in terms of stealing things, but she was more annoying and bullied us all the time.

I met a few other people (which involved getting in fights once in a while), but they weren't really _friends,_ although they were nice. They had their own friends, and I had Grover.

Although Annabeth had said, "See you around," I didn't see her much at all. I saw her sneaking around corners, or once in a while I went to go talk to her, she'd say, "I'm busy, Jackson. I'll talk to you later."

You can guess how great my social life was.

* * *

Grover burst into my room. "Percy, you have to hurry up!"

"What?" I mumbled. I sat up, wondering how Grover got in, because I was pretty sure I locked the door last night.

"You're gonna be late if you don't hurry!" Grover panicked.

He dug through my closet and threw me my uniform.

"Forget about washing up right now," Grover said. He threw my blankets off and checked the clock. "It's 7:54. Our first class starts in six minutes!"

I slowly got up, and Grover huffed. He rushed into the restroom and returned with a bucket. My mind was functioning, wondering what that was for, until he threw that bucket of cold water on me.

"Dude!" I yelled.

"Hurry up and change," he said.

I took of my shirt and put on the white shirt for the uniform. Why did they have to have buttons? I started changing into the black pants, plus the belt, while Grover hurriedly did the tie.

"Grover, you're choking me," I said.

"It doesn't matter right now," he said, and pulled me along. "We have to run! Three minutes!"

I got my backpack and Grover grabbed my textbook and raced out the door. We skipped the stairs and ran to the other building. I cursed the school for being so big. The bell rang when we arrived at the other building.

"Maybe Mrs. Dodds will forgive us if we hurry," Grover said doubtfully.

Luckily the classroom wasn't that far. I threw open the door for Room 14, and sat in one of the empty seats in the front.

"Late on your first day, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Underwood?" a sickly sweet voice said.

It was just my luck to have Mrs. Dodds for first period.

We had received our schedules two days before today. I had Mrs. Dodds for first period, Mr. Bell for second, Dr. Boring for third, Mrs. White for fourth, Mr. Blofis for fifth, and Coach Hedge for sixth. And of course, there was the homeroom/therapy period.

"Sorry, ma'am," Grover said weakly.

I on the other hand, didn't say anything, and I saw Nancy shoot us a smug look from the back.

"Class has already started," she said. "I trust that you have a pencil and a notebook?"

I nodded and dug around my backpack for a notebook and a pencil. My pencil was broken, but I tried not to let it show.

Mrs. Dodds seemed satisfied, and turned around and started writing math equations on the chalkboard. Who even uses a chalkboard these days?

Grover looked at my pencil and passed me a pencil sharpener. _Keep it,_ he mouthed.

I nodded as I tried to make sense of the equations Mrs. Dodds had written on the board.

* * *

First to fourth period was awful. I couldn't make sense of anything Mrs. Dodds or Dr. Boring wrote on the board. Plus in Dr. Boring's class, I had accidentally cussed when he asked me to read a question on the worksheet and my dyslexia added up. You can guess how bad _that _was. For fourth period, science, Annabeth showed up, and seemed to understand everything Mrs. White was saying, but I didn't get any of it.

"And they even had the nerve to give us homework!" I ranted. "What, does doing homework help us be less of a criminal?"

Grover snickered along with Juniper who decided to sit with us at lunch with Beckendorf and Silena.

"Probably to teach us discipline," Beckendorf laughed.

"No matter where you go, there are always bad things," Silena stated.

We laughed, and Annabeth slid in next to me with her lunch tray.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," I said back. Why were all conversations with her so awkward?

"Hey, nice to see you, Annabeth," Juniper said.

Silena grinned. "Did you come here to tell me that you changed your mind about the makeover?"

"Uh… no," she said.

Grover didn't say anything, and refused to acknowledge that she was there.

Annabeth glanced at Grover, but didn't say anything to him. Instead she reached into my backpack and got out my schedule.

"Hey!" I said.

"So you have Mr. Blofis next, huh?" she said as she leaned back keep my schedule away from me.

"Yeah, so what?" I said.

"Mr. Blofis? That's awesome!" Beckendorf said. "He's one of the best teachers here!"

"Well, looks like I'm going to have to deal with you for the next two periods," Annabeth said.

She sat forward again and handed me my schedule.

"Sorry for making you guys feel so awkward," she said. "I don't have much time to socialize."

"So I've heard," I said wryly.

She rolled her eyes. "Shut it." She looked around the cafeteria. "Oh look, there's Luke!" She beckoned him over.

I frowned. "Do you have a crush on him or something?"

Her face reddened. "No."

Silena giggled, and we all stared at her. "What? Don't mind me." She started giggling again.

"Hey, Annabeth," Luke grinned. He looked at our table. "Hey, Percy. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Luke," I said uneasily, scooting over a bit.

"I'm not going to bite," he joked.

I eased up. "I hope so. I mean, I don't think you got in here for biting random people that you've just met."

Luke laughed. He seemed like an easy-going guy. "Yup. I'm a smuggler, not a dog."

Annabeth glared at Luke. "I'll leave you so you can have some 'bro time,' as you like to put it."

She got her tray and dumped her lunch in the trash.

"We'll leave you for your 'bro time' too," Silena said slyly. "Come on, Charlie."

They left the table.

"Wow," I mumbled, marveling on how fast people can leave you hanging.

"I know, right," Luke sighed. "Annabeth seems to get jealous from time to time. I know the rumors that go around the school. Some think that Annabeth is strange, but I don't. In fact, I think that she's the most logical one here."

Grover grunted, and the bell rang. "Let's go Percy."

"See ya, Percy," Luke said, and grabbed his bag.

Grover dragged me off.

"What's up? Any problems?" I asked—not in a threatening way.

"Nothing," Grover mumbled. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Then again, when does he want to talk about anything?" Nancy said. "If it isn't about trees, then that sorry excuse for a guy won't talk!"

"Shut up Nancy," I said. "What did he ever do to you?"

"Or," she continued, "if it isn't about murder."

Grover's face turned red with rage.

I didn't know the whole story behind "being responsible for someone's death" thing, but I wasn't about to let Nancy pick on my best friend. "Don't tease him about his crime," I said in a deadly voice. "That's just crossing the line. You don't see others teasing others about their crimes, do you?"

Nancy grinned. "Then looks like I'll be the first."

Grover was trembling now.

"Grover, you go on to class. I'll deal with her," I said.

"No," he said, his voice hollow. "I'll take care of myself. I don't want anyone else responsible for the mistakes that I do."

"Looks like the murderer is stepping up for his own!" Nancy grinned, and her friends laughed.

"I didn't kill her," Grover said. "I claimed responsibility because I felt like I was at fault. I didn't want the other getting in trouble for me."

"Like I care," Nancy said, and got ready to throw a punch.

I caught her fist before she could hit any of our faces.

"What's going on here?" Mrs. Dodds frowned.

"It's nothing," I said, letting go of the fist.

A bit too soon, apparently. Nancy still let that punch fly, putting all her strength into that one punch, and the crowd of students that I didn't notice instinctively moved out of the way. I fell on the floor awkwardly on my arm, and a pain shot through my arm. I quickly got up, trying not to use my left arm.

"Nancy, dear, what did they do to you?" Mrs. Dodds said. That devil.

"We didn't do anything to her," Grover said, and I was surprised. He seemed pretty terrified of Mrs. Dodds.

One of the students came out of their little circle and told her about the conflict.

"That, I believe, calls for detention," Mr. Bonsai said. "Detention for you, Nancy Bobofit, in two weeks. We'll come get you during your preferred time for you to serve detention."

I frowned. I was pretty sure that wasn't how people gave detention. I saw Mrs. Dodds give Mr. Bonsai a dirty look, probably for giving her favorite student detention.

"And you, Perseus Jackson," he said, "shall go to the nurse to get checked up. Rest of you, go to class!"

They all grumbled and walked away.

"See you at homeroom, maybe," I said.

Grover nodded and left.

"You know where the nurse's office is, correct?" Mr. Bonsai asked.

I nodded, and Mr. Bonsai started herding the students to their classes.

"You're going to pay for this," Nancy growled, as I passed her.

* * *

I took my time to the other building. The nurse's office was right next to Mr. D's Office which probably wasn't a good choice.

"Hello," the nurse said. She looked about twenty-one, with wavy light brown hair with blue eyes. "Did you get hurt?"

"Uh, yeah. I got punched in the face and hurt my arm when I landed on it when I fell," I said.

"Oh, dear," she said. She ushered me into the back room.

She made me sit on a bed while she examined my arm.

"Looks like you pulled a muscle," she said. "You probably weren't expecting the fall were you? Let me get you some ice."

She came back a few moments later, and made me stay there at least until classes ended.

"They should really be more careful," she had said. "And the staff should be more watchful. Those things happens more often. If you were to go back, I bet you'd get run over!"

So I had to stay here.

It was boring, just staring into space, so I dozed off, trying to balance the ice on my arm.

* * *

"Uh, Percy?" Annabeth called, and I woke up, spilling the melted ice on the floor.

"Huh? Annabeth?" I said. "Why are you here?"

She picked up my melted ice pack and threw it in the trash. "I'll get you a new one," she said. "In the meantime, here."

She tossed me an envelope. I quickly identified the writing as my mom's. A smile came on my face. I had written to her last week, unsure if she would reply. I opened the envelope and took out the letter. I tried my hardest to read it despite my dyslexia mistake a few hours ago.

_Dear Percy,_

_ I'm glad you met some new friends. I know the school is hard for you honey, but hang on. We'll see each other again. Just don't get into any more trouble, okay?_

_ I'm still trying to get rid of Gabe. I'm thinking of divorcing him after I earn some more money. He's as demanding as ever—but don't worry. I'll hang on as long as I know my son is doing the same thing. Gabe's the same as ever; drinking, playing poker, and all that usual things. _

_ I tried contacting your father. I didn't get through him yet, but I found his new contact information. I left him a message. I can only hope he'll check. And Percy, don't hate on your father, okay? Try to understand him. I really hope you get to meet him soon._

_ Enough about me. I hope you're doing well. Classes have started, right? Or at least when this letter reached you. I don't like the fact that you got sent away as much as you do. Try to do well in your classes. Pay attention, even outside of classes. Goode's a famous school and all, but there's some strange rumors about it. Be careful._

_Love,  
Mom_

_P.S. The runaway plan is still on. I haven't given up yet, and if you're still up for it, I'll work even harder to make that plan a reality._

I smiled, and put the letter back into the envelope.

Annabeth came back with a new ice pack. "You're done reading, right?"

I nodded. "Why did you have the letter anyway?"

"I told Chiron that I was coming to see you after classes and told me to deliver it to you," she said.

"And why are you here?"

"Project," she huffed. "I came in late for Mr. Blofis's class when he was assigning partners for a project, and I got stuck with you."

I made a face. "Do you hate me that much?"

She smirked. "Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, the project is a book report, just to get used to the new format he gave us."

She tossed me a book. I squinted at the title. "_Tom… Sawyer?"_

She nodded. "I expect you to finish it by tomorrow."

My jaw fell open. "I'm dyslexic!"

"What a coincidence," she said, but there seemed to be no sarcasm in that comment. "So am I. I'll give you two days to read it then. Good luck."


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry I didn't update for a while. I had trouble putting my ideas into words and I went camping... So yeah.**

**I have a question though. Is it a bit weird that the characters here don't cuss? I don't cuss, personally, so I try not to put cuss words in my stories, but since this is rated T anyway, I'm just wondering if it's weird that they're not cussing.**

**Guest- Thanks~**

**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- I'm gonna make sure that he doesn't copy his essay from the Internet. LOL.  
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**LightNightSky881- Thank you for your reviews! I'm really glad that you like it. :D  
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**This chapter isn't that great since it's just about the characters interacting a bit more. The school's plot will be revealed soon, so don't worry. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Freedom," I sighed when the nurse finally let me out. My arm was feeling normal again, but I had missed dinner. Maybe I could sneak out for a midnight snack.

"Perrrcccy!" Grover bleated, giving me a hug. "I missed you!"

"It was only for a few hours," I said. I was glad that he was over his fight with Nancy though. "I missed dinner. You have anything to eat?"

Grover shook his head. "Normally I would, but today was the weekly inspection, so no. I'm planning on getting a midnight snack though."

I grinned and gave him a high five. "Well, I'm in with that idea."

* * *

It turned out that many others wanted midnight snacks that night. We raided the kitchen (picked open by the Stoll brothers) causing mass panic among the staff that were patrolling. In short, it was awesome.

"This is awesome," I said. I got a box of chocolate chip cookies and a whole bunch of candy.

Grover nodded. "We'd better go back to our dorms before the teachers catch us."

We went to my dorm and started talking and eating until we heard the staff knocking on doors making sure everyone was asleep after that kitchen raid. Grover sped off to his room and I quickly crushed my teeth and jumped in bed. I didn't even start reading _Tom Sawyer._

* * *

Two days later, I was getting somewhat used to the daily class routine. I was able to get to my first class on time, though I had Grover wake me up.

But I was panicking.

"Hey, you actually woke up early," Grover marveled.

"I don't know what to do!" I said, throwing down my book. I was all ready for school—packed and dressed. "I didn't finish the book last night! Annabeth's going to kill me."

Grover frowned. "What? _Tom Sawyer?_ The book report's not due until next Monday."

"She wanted me to finish the book by today," I said. "But I can't read for life."

"Being dyslexic doesn't you can't read," Grover sighed. "You just have trouble reading. And if you were so worried, you could've asked for help or you could've tried reading last night."

"I did," I scowled. "I pulled an all-nighter to read five more chapters."

"You must've been tired," he observed. "You have until fifth period to read it. I'll help you. I'll get Juniper to help too."

"Thanks," I said. "Let's go. I don't want Mrs. Dodds yelling at me for being late."

Grover chuckled and we ran to class avoiding other students. Mrs. Dodds gave me a dirty look since she couldn't single me out since I was on time.

The bell rang and class started. Mrs. Dodds starting droning on about mathematic properties and I got out _Tom Sawyer_, trying to read it.

"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds snarled, and my head shot up.

"Yes?"

She smirked. "Please answer this question. If you can."

I scowled, and tried to make out the equation. No luck. I probably wouldn't have been able to answer it anyway if I had read it correctly. "Twenty-six," I said randomly.

Mrs. Dodds looked surprised. "Fine, Perseus. I'll let you go this time. Next time you can explain to me why you were reading a book during my class."

"To prove that I could read, unlike what you said the other day," I smirked. Yesterday Mrs. Dodds had called me out again about not being able to read. She wasn't human.

The chalk in her hand snapped as she continued writing on the board.

"Nice one!" Travis whispered.

"Thanks," I said. "But was I really right?"

"Yeah," Grover said and showed me his work.

"Thanks," I mumbled. I opened my book again, but tried to be more careful about it.

* * *

It was finally fifth period. And Annabeth wasn't ditching today. Shoot.

"I'll give you class time today to work on your book report," Mr. Blofis said. Mr. Blofis was really nice with salt-and-pepper hair. He reminded of a television actor, but this was his only job. "I chose a fairly easy book for you to work with, so it shouldn't take too long."

I winced as everyone moved seats.

"You didn't read it," Annabeth said as soon as she sat down.

"How'd you know?" I mumbled.

"I can tell," she said, rolling her eyes. "You are such an idiot sometimes."

"I got through half the book," I offered. Grover and Juniper had helped me at lunch in the library to avoid Nancy and Matt.

"I finished it in a few hours," she said.

"Not my fault you ditched yesterday," I said. "I didn't see you at all."

Annabeth sighed. "It's about a guy living along the Mississippi River."

She gave me a brief crash course on the book.

"Uh huh," I said once she was done.

"You get it now?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's weird," I said.

"You should try reading it though," she said and got out the book report format. "We should start by writing the introduction and the conclusion. I'll work on the intro first while you try to finish that."

She gave me a few tips for my ADHD and got started on the introduction while I tried to finish _Tom Sawyer._ I found myself enjoying reading the book. The tips that Annabeth gave helped.

I actually finished it before class ended.

"Nice job," she smiled and handed me her paper. "You know how to write the conclusion right? If it's hard, just try to make it similar to my introduction. Okay?"

"Okay," I nodded, and the bell rang.

"Class dismissed!" Mr. Blofis said.

"Wait, Annabeth!" I said. I caught up to her in the hallway. "You're in study hall, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can we work on the book report then?" I pleaded. "Don't ditch, even though that's an afterschool activity."

She laughed. "All right then. I'll see you then."

She left, definitely not in the direction of gym. I wondered what other things she was trying to find out.

"There she goes again," Grover said. "She's always ditching. I don't know why."

"I'm going to try and find out," I said. "Do you have any ideas?"

Grover shook his head. "Nah. I try not to get in her way ever since... never mind."

"Ever since what?" I asked. "Is it related to the thing that Nancy teased you about the other day?"

"It's nothing, Percy," he said. "I need to go help Coach Nunley today. See you in homeroom!"

Grover had a lifelong excuse from PE due to a muscle disorder or something. I wasn't sure if that was true though, because I've seen him run when we had enchiladas in the cafeteria.

I jogged outside over to the gym.

"Hurry up cupcakes if you don't want to be late!" Coach Hedge yelled.

Coach Hedge was exactly five feet zero, which was a good thing since if he was any taller, he would be absolutely menacing. I only had one PE class with him, and I hated PE already.

I got changed into our PE clothes which were rainbow tie-dye shirts with running shorts that made us look like hippies. At least the school was closed out so no one else would see us.

"Okay, listen up, cupcakes!" Coach yelled. "We'll start off by running three miles!"

Everyone groaned.

"Be lucky I'm being easy on you since it's the beginning of the school year!" he said. "Now go!"

We started running around the track. I was immediately dropped to one of the last few runners.

"Jackson, you'd better speed up! Don't be a pussy!" Coach yelled.

I clenched my jaw and sped up, but it wasn't much. I was never the best at running.

_Well, nice time to improve,_ I thought, and sped up a little more.

I spotted Clarisse in the way front, jogging leisurely with Luke right behind her. I caught up to Juniper who was surprisingly fast.

"Hey, Juniper," I panted.

"Don't give up now, Percy," Juniper encouraged. "I'm not enjoying this either, but let's try hard. You're doing great!"

I tried to match my pace with hers as we finished the first mile.

"Two more miles to go," I groaned. The bright sun wasn't helping either.

"Be optimistic," Juniper chided.

* * *

I felt like I was in heaven when we finished. Coach Hedge let us take a water break which tasted like the drink of the gods.

"Great job out there, cupcakes," Coach said. "Especially you, Clarisse." He glared at all of us. "Why can't you be like her?"

"We're criminals, not body builders," someone mumbled.

Coach Hedge ignored that comment. "I'm in a good mood so I'll let you play basketball for the day. You're dismissed when the bell rings!"

People started pushing and shoving, and Matt used that chance to pound me to the ground as he raced for the basketball. I swear, people at this school weren't human.

* * *

We had a fun homeroom where we discussed our favorite things. We played some games afterwards that Chiron had made up, but we ended up breaking a few chairs. The bell rang.

"Today was a nice homeroom," Chiron said. "Everyone is free to go."

"You're going to study hall, right?" Grover said. "I have to go to the environmental club, so I'll come with you."

I nodded. "Grover, do you think you'll ever get released from here?"

Grover sighed and shook his head. "I wish. But I think my crime's too big. And even if I was released, I'd miss you and Juniper."

There it was again. His crime. "I know you don't like to talk about it, but can you tell me?"

"Some other time," he promised. "I don't want to talk about it yet, even though it's been a few years."

He went to the environmental club classroom and I went to study hall.

Study hall had the most students, but it was the least productive. We just hung out and talked, while only a few of us were studying. The classroom we used was cream colored with white tables with matching chairs, but we usually went to the library.

"You took your time," Annabeth said.

Oh yeah. And I only just found out that Annabeth was the leader, or the president. Whatever you prefer.

"Sorry," I sighed.

"Everyone who's going to be working, come with me to the library. The rest of you, just stay here and just pretend you're working. Write like, poetry or something. But do something," Annabeth said, and a few of us followed her to the library.

"Mr. Blofis wants the book report to be at least three or four pages," she said.

"So should we write really long paragraphs?" I asked.

"He gave us a specific outline, but he said, 'feel free to improvise,'" Annabeth said.

"I'll finish writing the conclusion then," I said. "You can start writing the body, I guess."

She nodded and we got to work. I tried to write neatly, but gave up quickly. I still finished, nevertheless.

She read over my conclusion. "Hey, not too bad. You did better than I thought you would."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"Whichever one you want it to be," she said. "You can start writing about Tom now. I'm writing about the plot."

"Sure thing," I said.

I found my mind wandering to the letter that my mom sent me. Strange rumors… Students being released randomly… What exactly _was_ going on in this school? Was it a cover for something?

"Uh, Percy? You okay?" Annabeth said, waving her hand in my face.

"Yeah, just thinking," I said. "How old was Tom again?"

She gave me a calculating look and told me the answer.

"I'll look it over once you're done, so no worries," she reassured. She went back to her work, her blond curls falling on her face.

I started writing again. Then I said, "Hey, Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" she asked, absorbed in her work. She was probably only half-listening.

"This school isn't what it seems like, is it?" I said.

She looked up and shook her head. "You're right. There's something weird going on in this school."

We didn't speak after that, concentrating on our work as if nothing happened.


	7. Chapter 7

**I was going to update yesterday, but I went over to Hydra's house and didn't bring my laptop (real smart of me). We have a new collab story, _The New Storm _(which I don't think will get many views, sadly), that are about our OC's. Just letting you guys know. **

**noname- I'm glad I don't know much about it either. But I can't really add much to Percy's past because I don't know much about them.  
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**Okay, so that's it. Check out our new story if you want to (please). Anyway, enjoy~**

* * *

The next day was pretty uneventful until Nutrition. We were eating at our regular table with me, Grover, and Juniper, when Rachel joined.

"Hey," she said. "You remember me, right?"

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," I recalled. "Head of the art club?"

She laughed and nodded. "Nice to see you too, Grover. Tell me when you have some projects going on. I'll help out."

Grover's eyes widened. "We're thinking of helping the Yellow Bellied Sap-suckers, actually. We're going to try to convince Mr. D to show our work to the outside world."

"That's great!" Rachel said. Her green eyes were shining with excitement.

Then we saw Annabeth.

She was wandering around with a half-eaten apple until she found the person she wanted. I saw her nod slightly to another person. She threw the apple.

My eyes followed the apple as it flew. Much to my glee, it hit Matt Sloan's head.

The students gasped.

"Ooh," Rachel said. "Looks like someone's in trouble. I _told_ her not to pick Sloan."

I gave Rachel a confused look, but she kept watching them.

Sloan slowly turned around and saw Annabeth with her arms crossed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I think that you were in my apple's way over to the trashcan," she said as Sloan walked up to her.

"There's plenty of other trashcans, Chase," Sloan growled.

"What's life without a little bit of fun?" she said confidently.

He smirked. "Is _that_ why you're always ditching and sneaking around?"

"That's none of your business," she said.

Sloan must've snapped right there, because he started punching her… only they all missed.

Annabeth sent him a smirk as she dodged his punches without effort. She ducked as he punched into a column.

"Ow!"

"Hurts, doesn't it?" she said. She gave him a good punch to the shoulder and he fell. "What are guys like these days if they just fall with one punch? Especially by a _girl?_"

Sloan gritted his teeth. "I told you that I didn't mean that!"

"Didn't seem like you meant it," she said, and twisted his arm back.

"Ms. Chase! What do you think you're doing?" a teacher said.

"He was in the way of my flying apple," she said.

"There's plenty of—" Sloan started, but Annabeth glared at him.

"Sloan, what just happened?"

Sloan explained the whole thing, twisting up some parts so that it would seem that he was the victim. I scowled.

"It's fine," Rachel said. "Annabeth can handle this."

Sure enough, the teacher sighed. "Sloan, detention. We'll come and get you whenever you're free."

Sloan's jaw dropped, and Annabeth stomped her foot behind him. She stormed out of the cafeteria, muttering things under her breath.

"Can someone tell me what just happened?" I asked.

"Don't worry Percy," Juniper said. "This happens from time to time."

"Can someone tell me _why?"_

"I don't know," Juniper said. "But Rachel might."

"But I'm not allowed to tell you why," she said. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. See you in third period, Percy."

She dumped her remaining snack in the trash.

"She has third period with me?" I asked.

"Um, she sits behind you," Grover said.

"Oh."

* * *

Apparently she did.

She was actually fun to talk to. We passed notes the entire class without getting caught.

"Percy," she snickered while she handed me a piece of paper. "I have to go to my next class, but can I sit with you guys at lunch?"

"Sure," I said, a bit puzzled about the paper.

"See you then," she said.

I unfolded the paper as I went to my next class. I found Grover on the way.

"What's that?" Grover asked.

I shrugged and showed him the paper, and he started laughing.

"This is actually a great drawing of Dr. Boring," he laughed.

I looked at the sheet of notebook paper. She drew Dr. Boring with a long beard and a square mouth, and wrote "Dr. Boring is immensely boring."

I laughed and went to my science class.

* * *

"Mrs. White just hates puke, doesn't she?" I laughed.

"Seriously. You can just get out of class if you say 'puke,'" Grover said rolling his eyes.

Juniper got us some lunch instead of making us wait in the long line since she was volunteering. Rachel came by a few minutes later.

"You guys got an early lunch? Lucky! I had to wait in line!" she said.

"Juniper's awesome," Grover said.

"Don't say that just because I got you enchiladas when it's spaghetti day," Juniper said, but she was blushing.

"Speaking of that, Annabeth's on the move again," Rachel said.

We turned around and saw Annabeth holding her plate of spaghetti. She looked around she found her target.

"Whoops," she said, dumping her plate upside down on Nancy's head.

Nancy looked at her outraged. I winced. Even that was a bit mean.

"Hey!" she yelled, pulling off the spaghetti from her head.

"Well, that's a new look for you," Annabeth said. "Especially since you did it to others."

Nancy's face turned red. "Mrs. Dodds!" she called, who was on lunch duty. "Annabeth dumped spaghetti on my head!"

Mrs. Dodds came running over and started fussing about Nancy.

"Is Nancy like her angel or something?" Grover muttered.

"I'm the devil spawn," I said, and they laughed. "She isn't human."

"You're right," Grover said.

"Nancy, you can go wash up. I'll write you a late note," Mrs. Dodds said. Nancy gave Annabeth a smug look. "Ms. Chase, I expect that to never happen again."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and stormed away.

"Well, someone's under the weather," I said. "I hope Mr. Blofis doesn't make us work on the report today. I don't want to work with her right now."

Rachel nodded approvingly. "There's days like this sometimes when she purposely tries to get detention, but it never works out. They just say something like, 'Please don't do that again, Ms. Chase.' Or 'We expected more from you, Annabeth.'"

"Why doesn't she get detention though? All her actions are detention worthy," I said.

"She's not really like that. I can tell," Juniper said.

"You're right; she isn't. She's just acting," Rachel said. "You, um, don't want to get involved with her on her 'Detention Days.'"

I saw her exit the building to the field. "Be right back," I said.

I followed her to the exit, but she wasn't there. There was only Luke.

"Hey, Perce," Luke said. He lighted his cigarette.

"Hey…" I said. "Did you see Annabeth by any chance?"

He shrugged. "Want one? I only brought a box of cigs and weed."

He offered me some, and I almost took one by habit.

"Um, no. Sorry," I said, stopping myself. "I shouldn't be doing that."

He gave me a strange look. "Your loss."

"Do you really sneak outside?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "That's one of the reasons why Annabeth wanted me to help her."

"With what?" I asked, hoping I can get something out of him.

"Nothing big," he said. Attempt failed.

"Okay then. See you around," I said and went back inside.

"You took your time," Juniper said.

"I talked with Luke," I said.

"Why Luke?" Grover asked.

"He offered me some weed and a smoke," I said. I looked at their faces. "Not that I accepted."

Rachel nodded. "Good."

_R-R-RING!_

Everyone got up and started crowding around to go to class.

"Mr. Blofis. Great," I sighed.

"Don't worry," Rachel said. "You're going to be working on your project, but you'll be working alone for some time."

"How do you know?"

"I just can," she smiled. She walked away to her other class.

"She can sometimes tell the future," Grover explained.

"Or that's what we think," Juniper said.

I nodded. We entered Mr. Blofis's class.

"Everyone, we'll be working on our reports today," Mr. Blofis said. "Remember, they're due on Monday."

We moved seats, but I didn't see Annabeth anywhere.

"Um, Mr. Blofis?" I asked. "My partner isn't here."

"Annabeth?" he said. "Then just work on it yourself for now. She'll probably come later."

I sighed and got to work. I tried to write a new paragraph, but I couldn't concentrate. I mean, how was Tom Sawyer going to help us be better people?

I started dozing off for ten minutes until the door opened with a loud _slam!_

"Sorry I'm late Mr. Blofis!" Annabeth yelled loudly.

Mr. Blofis winced. "Its fine, Annabeth. Just don't yell in the future, okay?"

"Okay!"

She scowled and sat next to me.

"You okay?" I asked nervously.

"Perfect," she muttered.

"No, seriously Annabeth. I want to help."

"There's nothing for you to help with."

"You just said that this school wasn't normal yesterday!"

"Huh," she said. Rachel was right when she said not to mess with her on Detention Day. "I think we can finish the report today. I'll finish editing it by tomorrow and we can type it up on the library computer on the weekends. Sound good?"

She didn't wait for my answer and got to work. I sighed. Girls were so hard to understand.

* * *

Annabeth actually came to PE today. I was quite surprised.

"Okay, who did this?" Coach yelled after our two mile run.

His baseball bat had smashed cupcakes all over it that didn't seem to be falling off. He waved it around.

"I did, sir," Annabeth said stepping up.

"Don't make me mad again, Chase. You'll regret it," he said.

"What the heck!" she mumbled.

I gave her a weird look, and Rachel (who also had PE with us) patted her shoulder. Annabeth met my eyes and immediately looked away.

* * *

Rachel didn't have homeroom with me, which was a bit of a bummer.

"She has a different counselor. That's why some students have different homerooms," Juniper explained. "But Chiron does the therapy sessions during the breaks, so everyone had a chance to have a session with him."

We went around the circle, telling our regrets and what we would've done differently.

"I regret not going back and helping her," Grover said. "If I could change what I've done, I would've still helped her, even when she told me to leave."

It was my turn now. "I, uh, regret doing drugs and joining a gang. Instead, I wish I just told my mom about the things Gabe was doing, and maybe tell the police."

"Okay. Going on," Chiron said.

Some people took their time to answer, so we were quickly dismissed.

I went to Study Hall alone because I didn't see Annabeth and Grover and Juniper were having the club outdoors. I sat in the library and got working.

Two hours passed, and Annabeth wasn't showing up. And I finished my part of the report.

"Um, did you see Annabeth?" I asked Clarisse.

"Princess?" Clarisse said. "Nope, but she's probably outside beating someone up."

"Thanks," I said and got my stuff. I ran downstairs to the field.

Sure enough, she really was beating someone up.

"Travis, get back here!" she yelled. "Connor, you're not excused either!"

"Gotta catch us first," Connor taunted.

She chased them around the school store and caught them by their T-shirts.

I didn't see what she was doing, but I heard some painful sounds. "That's for entering the girls' dorms." _CLUNK!_ "That's for stealing my key." _WHACK! _"That's for trying to lie to me." _SLAP! _"That's for trying to run from me." _WHACK! THUNK! SLAP!_ "And those are for putting a tarantula in my backpack!"

"We're sorry!" Connor yelled.

"We'll never do it again!" Travis pleaded.

I went over and saw Annabeth drop them in a heap. They immediately ran.

"So _that's_ what you were doing for two hours," I commented.

Annabeth's face turned red. "I'm so sorry Percy. I was _not_ doing this for the last two hours."

"Uh-huh."

She rolled her eyes. "I was doing some snooping around, and then I realized that I was late for Study Hall, and I went to go get my backpack from my dorm—"

"Why didn't you bring it with you?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes again. "Because I knew that I wouldn't be working. Anyway, the Stolls pulled a prank on me, so I've been chasing them for about forty-six minutes or so."

"But are you all right?" I asked, and she looked confused. "I mean, with the school problem and all."

She gave me a cold look. "I don't like talking about that with others that are not the people who are helping me."

"Please, Annabeth. Let me help," I pleaded.

She started walking away, leaving me to stare at her back. She turned around. "What? Aren't you coming?"

My face turned red. "I am!"

She smiled. "Good. Here's what we're going to start out with."

I caught up and nodded.

"I found out that Nancy's first detention is today in half an hour," she said.

"So?"

She raised an eyebrow. "We're going to go observe, of course."


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, I'm gonna say this before you read the chapter (if you guys even read this part). This chapter is really weird and I don't like it. I was just so out of idea this was (sadly) the best I could come up with. So please don't be too harsh with me on this chapter. T_T**

**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- I honestly have no idea, as I'm not Annabeth (although she's awesome), and I sometimes write characters a bit OOC. XD  
**

**hermes child awesomness- Thanks for your support. :)  
**

* * *

"Do I _have_ to go to the girls' dorms?" I complained as she dragged me along.

"Sush!" she scolded.

We positioned ourselves in front of Nancy's room. We heard her crying in there, and she must've invited her friends in there, because I heard her crying and saying things about how people who go to detention never come back or go mad.

I gave Annabeth a questioning glance, and she shrugged.

"Annabeth, you realize that we can get caught here when the staff comes, right?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "You are so annoying sometimes."

"Like when I'm right?" I smirked.

"We'll go to my room," she said and dragged me to Room 06G.

"Annabeth, what if I get caught in here too?" I asked and she shut the door.

"We only have one room per person. Duh," she said.

"Why? Isn't it a waste of space?"

"But they don't trust criminals to room with each other," she said.

She pressed her ear to her door and looked at her clock which said 5:27. I felt awkward in a girl's room, other than the fact that I wasn't supposed be here in the first place.

Annabeth's room was clean, unlike mine. Her walls were gray, with white furniture. She even had a couch. She had a shelf full of books on the other side of the wall. Her bed was made with a nightstand next to it. I noticed that she had a spider-repellant bug spray next to her lamp.

"They're here," Annabeth hissed.

We waited for a moment until Annabeth dragged me out.

"Be careful, and don't make any noise," she warned.

She followed the staff from the distance, but still keeping them in sight. I was relieved when we were out of the girls' dorms. We ducked behind the trashcans.

"Up," one of the staff said.

"What are you talking about? This building only has two floors!" Nancy said. She seemed to be back to her own self.

"A third floor?" Annabeth muttered.

The staff pushed away some boxes that separated the two wings. They revealed the old rickety stairs leading up. Annabeth gripped my arm.

Nancy's eyes widened as they pushed her up the stairs. Once their footsteps were gone, we followed.

"I'll go first. They won't give me detention no matter what," Annabeth said.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked.

"You're the one who wanted to help," she said. "You can go back if you want."

I gulped and shook my head.

At the top there was a small room filled with computer screens. There was a seat like the ones you see at the dentists' and some wacky looking tools, but that wasn't the weird part. There were weird creatures in cages, tackling their cells. There were things that looked like mutated dogs and a flying pig.

"Daedalus, she's here," the staff said, and got ready to come down the stairs.

"Oh, no," Annabeth said.

She pushed me against the wall, but the staff was too busy rushing down the stairs to even notice us. Annabeth's body was pressed against mine with her face against my neck. I could feel her breath until she waited for the guy to leave.

"Is that Daedalus guy that scary?" I asked, pulling away.

"I don't know," she said. "I've heard his name here and there, but I don't know what he does."

She instructed me to crouch down as we peeked over the stairs on our knees.

"Please sit," a voice, probably Daedalus, said.

We saw Nancy sit and a man with short gray hair and a clipped beard.

"Who are you?" Nancy asked. For once, she sounded a bit scared. She looked fearfully at the caged creatures.

"I'm Daedalus," he said. "I'm really sorry that you are here and that I have to do this to you."

"What are you going to do?" she said firmly.

Daedalus mixed some things together and put it in a test tube.

"What are those?" I asked.

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But he's a genius. That, I can tell."

We watched as he poured it in a needle, like the shots you get at the hospital. I winced at the thought.

"Tranquilizer or no?" he asked.

"Sorry?"

"Then no it is," he said.

He brought the needle over and gave her a shot on the arm. Her reaction was nothing like I'd expected.

She started screaming and kicking. Pretty intense for a person getting a shot. Her eyes were open wide, and she froze.

Daedalus looked at the computer screens and cursed. He got another needle and pulled out some blood from her forearm. Nancy came back to normal and promptly fainted.

"I told them," he muttered.

"Let's get out of here," I whispered, and she nodded.

We ran down the stairs and kicked away the boxes blocking the stairs.

"You pleased with what you saw?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I still don't understand. I'm going to sneak back up here to see another detention." I opened my mouth to ask if I can help, but she cut me off. "You need to catch yourself up on what's happening before helping me."

"And how do I do that?"

She started to say something, but was stopped by Dr. Thorn. "What do you think you two are doing up there?"

"Um…" Annabeth said. For once she seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Run!" I hissed.

I grabbed her hand and I pushed Dr. Thorn away. We ran down the stairs.

"Daedalus!" he yelled. "Open Cell 001!"

"What's that?" Annabeth asked.

"I think it's one of those things in the cells," I gulped.

"Keep on running," she said, and there was a loud bark.

The bark echoed throughout the building.

"He's not planning on killing us, is he?" I asked.

"Can't say," Annabeth said. "Remember, there are students that didn't come back after detention."

"I definitely needed you to remind me of that. Thanks," I said. "Does that mean the teachers here kill students."

"I don't know it all yet," she said. "But it's definitely not safe for us."

The ground shook and we turned around. We saw a huge dog, whose back almost touched the ceiling. It was all black with red eyes. Saliva was dripping out of its mouth. Its murderous gaze was focused on us.

"That-that looks like a hellhound," Annabeth said, backing up.

"Like from Greek mythology?" I asked. "That's impossible!"

"Forget about that for right now," she said.

We turned and made a run for it, the dog right behind our backs. Annabeth picked up a pencil and threw it at the dog. Her aim was perfect. It nailed the dog in the eye.

Annabeth led me into a random room. We started panting. Why did this school have to be so big?

"You know we didn't get rid of the dog for good, right?" I asked.

She nodded. "Just give me some time to get my mind straight."

She leaned against the wall with her eyes closed.

"It makes no sense," Annabeth said. "Those things don't exist in this world."

"I know," I said. "But if you want to research that more, we have to survive the dog attack. Come on."

We exited the room, the dog nowhere in sight.

"Where?" I asked.

"We want to go to an open space," she muttered. "The cafeteria. Most of the other students should be in their dorms or at their club activities."

I nodded and we ran to the cafeteria.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

The dog growled at us from the doorway. It charged, knocking over some tables and breaking some chairs. We rolled to the right.

"I don't know," she said. "Kill it?"

"How?"

"Any weapons?" she asked.

"No," I said. "But that doesn't mean we can let the other students and teachers get hurt."

Annabeth sighed. "Fine. Distract it for a while."

"What?"

Annabeth already slipped into the kitchen.

The dog was about to chase after her, but I threw a broken chair piece at it. It completely missed, but it got its attention. "Hey, Mutt-Face! Over here!"

The dog snarled at me. It ran toward me, breaking a few more tables and chairs. I ducked as it jumped over me and banged its head on the wall. A big crater appeared in the wall and I winced.

I moved away from the wall, afraid that it might break.

"Percy, I got it!" Annabeth said, bringing a kitchen knife.

"A kitchen knife?" I said.

"It works," she said. She threw the knife into the dog's rump. It let a pitiful bark, but it seemed pretty much alive. "And by the way, your insults suck."

"Gee, thanks."

"Watch out!" Annabeth yelled.

The dog seemed angrier than before. It jumped, and Annabeth tried to protect me, but the dog landed on top of me, tearing my shirt.

"Percy!"

I saw multiple arrows shoot the dog and it fell limp and fell to the floor.

"Now, what are you two doing here?" Chiron asked wheeling in.

I was about to ask if he shot the arrows, but there was no bow in sight.

"Nothing," I groaned. Annabeth helped me up.

"Well, you two _did_ cause a mess here," Chiron said.

"But that dog did it," I murmured.

I felt something warm on my chest. I had the feeling it was my blood. I looked down and felt dizzy. Annabeth steadied me.

"Yes," Chiron said. "That isn't to be told to anyone. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Chiron," Annabeth said. "What are we going to do about the cafeteria? And the dog?"

"It's a big mess. You two will have a consequence for that," he said. "You'll have detention with me for the next week or so. As for the dog, leave it here. One of our sponsors are visiting soon. We'll leave it up to them." Slight anger showed in his eyes.

"But for detention…" I said. "Do we have to do it with Daedalus?"

Annabeth glared at me, but Chiron just shook his head. "I'll get you when it's time for your detention. Don't cause anymore trouble."

He winked and wheeled himself away.

"What was that about?" I said, stumbling again.

"I'll take you to the nurse," she said. "Come on, Percy."

She slowly took me to the nurse's office, passing by the main office on the way.

"Wait," I murmured. "Voices."

"Percy, you're hurt," Annabeth said.

"No. Listen," I said.

She gave me a worried glance but listened in.

"We're not criminals. We didn't steal from the bank. The banker gave the money to us!" someone said. "And we had to survive."

"Nonsense," Mr. D said. "You don't have any guardians to get you out of here anyway."

"We have our father."

"But he's not claiming you. I don't blame him. You guys are really stupid children. Especially you," Mr. D said.

"Don't talk to my sister that way!" another younger voice said. His voice trembled, but I liked how he stood up for his sister, especially front of Mr. D.

"Shut up, both of you," Mr. D snapped. "Here's your keys, Room G13 for both of you. Boys' dorm second floor, west wing, girls' dorms second floor, east wing. You're responsible for learning the rules around here. Now get out of my sight!"

"Let's go now," Annabeth said. "You're gonna collapse."

"Or you can just get Michael or Lee," I mumbled.

She rolled her eyes and dragged me to the nurse's office while the brother and sister came out. They stared at us with wide eyes. They both had midnight black hair and olive skin with dark eyes. The girl had a green floppy cap over her face.

"You didn't see anything here," Annabeth said. "Don't tell anyone."

She finally got me to the nurse's office.

"You again?" she asked.

"Sorry, Panacea," Annabeth said. "You know boys."

Panacea laughed. "Yes I do. Come on to the back."

Annabeth dragged me over to the back and put me on a bed.

"I'm going to go to the library and do some reading," she said. "I'll visit you right after dinner."

"Bring me some junk food," I said.

She smiled. "Sure thing."


	9. Chapter 9

**Characters may be OOC in this chapter, especially near the end. Sorry.**

**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- Thanks. I'm glad you like it.  
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**Scarlett Silphia- I'm glad you liked it. ^^ As for Bianca, I have to think about it a bit, but at least she'll be alive for a while.  
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**hermes child awesomness- Thanks.  
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**AjSummer- I'm glad you kept reading! You're actually pretty close about the sponsors, but no, it's not the gods. Thanks for your review!  
**

* * *

I was surprised by who came to visit me.

The two new students came right before dinner.

"You only have ten minutes, especially since the cafeteria was destroyed," Panacea said.

"Okay, thank you," the girl said.

Panacea smiled and closed the door.

"So," the girl said. "What got you in here?"

"I can't say," I said. "Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Bianca di Angelo," she said. "And this is my little brother Nico."

Nico waved cheerfully.

"I'm Percy Jackson," I said. I moved, but winced.

"We know," Bianca said. "But what's up with this school?"

"What do you mean?"

Bianca crossed her arms. "You know what I mean."

"You mean they're going to give us a strange mutation?" Nico said. "Like in the video games when you have superpowers? Oh, are they going to make us into an army for the government? Ooh—"

"Nico, shut up!" Bianca said. "The way I see it, they're not working with the government whatsoever! And this is not one of your stupid video or card games!"

Nico withered under her outburst.

"Sorry," Bianca sighed. "I don't even know why we're here, and then I see that dog—"

"You saw it?" I asked, ignoring the pain as I sat up. "How?"

"I had to go use the restroom, and decided to figure out the rules for myself," Nico piped up. "We went by the cafeteria and it was blocked with that yellow caution tape you know? So I climbed over it, and I saw that dog. It was kind of like Clifford, except it was a big black dog, not a big red dog."

"And you almost got us in trouble!" Bianca hissed.

"Hey, we're criminals. What are they going to do if we break some rules? Make us extra bad criminals?" Nico shrugged.

I laughed. "Okay, fine. Don't tell anyone about what you saw there. I'm not sure what they're doing at this school, but be careful, okay? Try not to get in trouble, besides your way of thinking."

"Hey, you two. It's dinner time. Your dinner's going to be served in your rooms, okay?" Panacea said. "As for you, Perseus, you'll be having salad."

I groaned.

* * *

I munched on some chips that Annabeth had snuck in for me.

"I didn't find much information," she had said. "I only found out that he used to work for Olympus. But he later worked for a smaller corporation called the Labyrinth under Minos. Then he just disappeared."

"And now he's here," I concluded.

"But I'm not sure what he did there," Annabeth said. "I'm going to do some more research tomorrow. I'll visit you again."

She left before I could say anything else.

Panacea came in and I stuffed my chips under my pillow. "Yes?"

"Here," she said, and gave me a glass filled with something that looked like apple juice. I raised an eyebrow. "Try it. We're not sure if it'll work, but try."

I took a sip and immediately spit it out. "Gross, what is this?!"

"I guess that's a fail then," Panacea said.

"Were you trying to _experiment_ on me?"

"Well, the drink was an experiment," Panacea admitted. "But it wasn't harmful. I'll let Quintus know."

"Who's Quintus?" I asked.

"No one important," she dismissed. She changed my bandages. "This is going to take a while to heal. You'd better not go to classes tomorrow."

"Alright then," I sighed. "Bye, Panacea."

"Good night, Percy," she smiled. She turned the lights off and closed the door.

* * *

The next day went by until lunch with me trying to persuade Panacea to let me out. Of course, it went unsuccessfully.

"No! You're still hurt!" she said and pushed me back down.

"It doesn't hurt _that _much! It can't be that bad."

"Oh, yes it can," she said. "I'll let you out after classes end!"

I groaned and slumped in the bed.

"Percy! Are you okay?" Rachel asked when she came in.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," I said.

"Annabeth told me," she said. "She seemed really worried about you."

I scoffed. "Didn't seem like it."

She smiled. "She's a puzzle to figure out, isn't she? I want to see her when we're out of this school. I feel like there's more to her."

I nodded. "Me too. How did you get into helping her?"

"Everyone knows that I have this strange… predicament that sometimes let me predict the future, let's just say," she said. "Of course, I can't predict what's going to happen _exactly_, but I can predict little bits. It's hard to explain. I told Annabeth one of my predictions, and she wanted me to help her."

"What did you tell her?" I questioned.

"I told her that a student will come that will trigger a series of events," she said. "It was strange that time because we didn't have a new student in years."

"But isn't this a high school? How would you know?" I said.

"Yeah, but Annabeth has been here since she was in middle school, I'm not sure what grade," she said. "They made a special exception for her."

"Oh," I said. "Do you know anything else about the school?"

Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Panacea. "Rachel? Lunch is over. You'd better go to class."

"Yes, Ms. Panacea," she said politely.

She waited until Panacea left. "I'll give you a hint. Check the library."

She smiled and left.

"Panacea?" I called. "Can I leave now?"

"No," she said. "But I'll let one of your friends come visit during their homeroom time. Fair enough?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now be quiet," she said jokingly.

"Can I have something to entertain myself please?" I asked.

"A book?" she offered.

"Never mind."

She laughed while I slumped in bed.

* * *

"Percy, you're alive!" Grover yelled.

"Hey, man," I grinned. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I was so worried!" he wailed. "I didn't want to be at fault for someone's death again."

"But you wouldn't be responsible for my death," I said.

"I know," he said, wiping tears. "But you remind me so much… of _her._"

"Oh," I said dumbly.

"Her name was Thalia," he said.

"What?"

"That girl who died. Her name was Thalia," Grover sniffed. "Thalia Grace, but she didn't use a last name unless she had to."

"I'm guessing she didn't have the best relationship with her family?" I guessed.

He nodded. "She ran away. She met Luke, and they met Annabeth a bit later. They lived out on the streets for a few years, and I joined them. I just lost my last family, Uncle Ferdinand, so I thought, what the heck?"

"Go on," I urged.

"And three years ago," he continued, "we ran into some cannibals and some really deadly dogs. They started chasing us, but we were tired. We were tired of being on the run. Thalia told us to run while she dealt with them. I shouldn't have listened to her, Percy! I shouldn't have."

Grover was crying now. I patted his back.

"And then Othrys caught up to us and sent us here," Grover said. "I didn't see what happened to Thalia, but I saw Othrys take her away on a stretcher. I felt so bad! I didn't talk to Annabeth or Luke after that."

"Grover, it's fine," I said. "It's not your fault."

He wiped his tears. "If you say so, Perce."

Panacea came in. "Sorry for interrupting. Percy, let me check to see if you're all right now."

She started poking my stomach and back.

"Okay, you should be all right now," she said. "You two can go to homeroom. Bye!"

She ushered us out and we walked to homeroom. Grover handed me my backpack.

"We can write letters home today," Grover said.

"Really?" I said. Then I remembered that Grover didn't have one. "Oh, sorry."

"It's nothing," he mumbled. "I've gotten used to it."

"You should talk to Annabeth you know," I said. "She's not going to get mad."

"I know, Percy," he sighed miserably. "I just can't get myself to do it. But I want to. I really miss her."

* * *

"Everyone, dismissed!" Chiron said. "Unless you want to finish writing your letters."

I stayed, along with a few others.

I looked down at my letter.

_Dear Mom,_

_ This school is really weird. I mean, some students don't even come back from detention! I saw it happening. This weird guy named Daedalus gave this girl a shot and she started going crazy. It was weird. And then this weird black dog started chasing us. I got hurt a bit, but I'm all right now. No worries._

_ You remember Annabeth, right? I told you about her in my other letter. She beat me up, but she's trying to figure out what's going on in this school. She's a puzzle to figure out, as Rachel says. But I think we're getting along somewhat. I still don't know everything that she found out, but Rachel gave me a little hint. I wish you could meet Annabeth. I think you'd like her._

_ Otherwise, I'm fine. Or as fine as you can be when you're in a school for criminals. How are you doing? Is Gabe treating you okay? I really miss you, and your blue chocolate chip cookies. I hope I can see you and go home soon. Without Smelly Gabe, of course._

_ Did my dad reply to you yet? He sounds nice, from what you've told me, but I kind of resent him for leaving us with Gabe. But I'm willing to try getting along with him if it means getting away from Gabe. Love you. Hope to see you soon._

_Love,_

_Percy_

I probably had a gajillion spelling mistakes in there, but that's what I thought I wrote. Maybe the "Love, Percy" part was a bit cheesy, but who cares.

I put my letter in my envelope and wrote the address. I handed it to Chiron.

"Thank you," he said. "Now please go to the library and wait for me please for your detention."

"Yes, sir," I said.

I headed up the stairs and saw Annabeth at the library.

"Hey," I said. "You ditched today, didn't you?"

"You need a new uniform," she said, not looking up from her book.

I looked down. My uniform was torn from that dog yesterday, but I put a jacket on top of it.

"I, unlike you, changed into my regular clothes instead of that stupid uniform," she said.

"Oh, shut up."

"Thank you for waiting," Chiron said, and Annabeth quickly slipped the book back in its place.

"What are we doing?" Annabeth asked. Of course, she wasn't there during homeroom, so she wouldn't know.

"Serving detention," Chiron said. "I thought that you'd prefer having it with me rather than the standard detention. You two will be researching on the corporation Othrys."

"What are we going to do with that information, sir?" Annabeth asked.

"Just research. Write down your notes and show it to me in an hour," Chiron said.

Annabeth grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil on the librarian's desk and started looking for books.

"I don't know why he's making us do this," she muttered to herself. "Is he trying to hint us at something?"

"I dunno," I said and grabbed a book called _Othrys: A New World._ "What's Othrys anyway?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You've never heard of them?"

I shook my head.

"Well, their rival corporation is called Olympus," she said. "Othrys invests in things that can change things drastically, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the worse. They basically want to create a new world. It seems silly, but they seem interested in making all those sci-fi things come true."

"And did they actually create them?" I asked.

Annabeth took my book and nodded. "Some of them." She started reading and jotting down notes.

"What about Olympus then?" I asked. "I only heard of it."

"At least you heard of it," she snorted. She closed the book and grabbed another. "Olympus is more focused on improving things that are present in our world. It's more well-known than Othrys, but they're the two strongest corporations in the world. In my opinion, Olympus seems more helpful."

"How would you know?"

"Because I met some of the people who work there," she said. "Before my stepmom came, my dad took me to visit Olympus. I don't know how he managed to get himself to do it, but I talked to some of the Olympians, as they call them."

"Huh," I said. "Let's just finish this quickly."

She nodded and skimmed through multiple books. I tried to help, but Annabeth did mostly everything.

"Chiron, we're done," she said and showed him her notes.

"Good. Well done," he said. "Keep it for future reference. And Annabeth, you have another letter," Chiron said.

Annabeth gave him a puzzled look, and he left. She looked at the envelope and ripped in into pieces by the trashcan.

"What the heck does _that_ mean?" she muttered.

"The letter?"

"What future reference?" she sighed. "I'm going to go do some more research on Daedalus," she said. "You don't have to help if you don't want to."

"Wait, Annabeth," I said. "You didn't edit the report, and its due in a few days."

She frowned. "Oh, right. Do you have it with you?"

"Uh, yeah," I said. I dug through my backpack that Grover brought me and gave her the report.

"Thanks," she said. "Come to the library tomorrow."

I nodded and quickly waited for her to leave. Once she left, I looked at the huge library and sighed. Time to get searching.


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry I didn't update for a while. I wasn't feeling the best and didn't want to write a chapter in a bad mood.**

**hermes child awesomness- But then again, Mr. D's really lazy and probably doesn't care very much anyway.  
**

**A regular demigod- Thanks! ^.^  
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**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- Thank you. I'm glad it wasn't too OOC.  
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**Switch Blade14- Yus. DUN DUN DUN! XD  
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**Also Nico might be OOC again... His cheery character (or when Bianca was alive character) is actually kind of hard for me to write... ._. Yeah.**

* * *

I decided to start by asking the librarian.

"Uh, excuse me?" I said.

"Yes, would you like something?" a man said, looking up from a black book with a flower on it.

"Does Annabeth Chase visit here often?" I asked.

"Yes, she does," he said.

"What section does she usually go to?"

He scrolled down the library computer. "She usually wanders around all the sections, but looks like she likes Greek mythology."

"Okay. Thank you," I said.

I rushed over to the mythology section and looked at the books. What book would Annabeth be interested in?

The _Iliad?_ Maybe. Ares? Definitely not. Artemis? Perhaps. Athena?

I thought about it, and it made sense. She was like Athena in so many ways. She has gray eyes and she's really smart. I smiled. If Annabeth was a demigod, I was sure that she'd be a daughter of Athena. But there were so many books about Athena! How would I search them all? And maybe this wasn't the clue Rachel had meant.

I started looking through the books anyway. I flipped pages, and put them back in if there wasn't anything. I went through at least thirty books about Athena until the librarian said, "Time to close up! Out!"

I sighed and left. The librarian left and turned off the lights. I grinned. There was no door to the library, and no one was here at night.

"Did you find out about my hint?" Rachel whispered as she came to sit next to me.

Chiron had convinced Mr. D to let us eat outside as a treat since our cafeteria was trashed. Mr. D gave me a dirty look when he agreed.

"I think so. I'm not completely sure though," I said.

"Huh. I guess you _do_ have some brain in there," she smiled and tapped my head.

"Hey!"

"Well, you two are looking friendly," Juniper teased.

I choked on my pizza and Rachel slapped my back. Hard. "Thanks," I croaked.

"I cancel what I just said," Rachel said rolling her eyes.

"And besides, you and Grover are looking friendly too," I said.

She blushed and looked down at her food.

"Is everyone like in love here?" Annabeth snapped, sitting across from me.

"Um, no," I said weakly.

Grover started picking at his food. I nudged him. He didn't react, and I let out a sigh.

"Hey, I'm going to go see if Bianca and Nico are doing okay," I said. "Be right back. Juniper, Rachel, want to come?"

Rachel met Juniper's eyes and nodded. "Sure," they said.

"Won't be long," I promised.

We walked away from our table, and Juniper asked, "What was that about?"

"Grover needs to get over his fear," I said.

"Bunnies?"

I gave her a weird look. "He's scared of _bunnies?_"

"Whoops. I wasn't supposed to say that."

We sat at Bianca's table where Nico and this other girl were sitting.

"Hey," I said. "Just wanted to check up on you."

"Thanks, Percy," she said. "This is Zoë."

Zoë rolled her eyes and muttered, "Great. More boys."

"As you can see, she doesn't like boys," Bianca added.

"And she's trying to recruit Bianca into their sexist all-girls club," Nico muttered.

"Sorry, what was that?" Bianca asked with a forced smile.

"Nothing."

"What do you have against boys?" I asked. "And it's just one more, and one of them is Bianca's brother."

"Thou do not need to know," Zoë said. She had an accent, but I couldn't tell which accent.

"But what do you get from joining?" I asked.

"Well, to start off," she said, "we do not need to be with boys like thee."

"You can't just go on ignoring boys for your whole life, you know."

Zoë huffed. "Which is why I don't have to explain to thee."

"So, Bianca," I said. "Are you going to join?"

Bianca smiled sadly. "I told her that I'd consider it. But—"

"Bianca!" Nico said. "You're just going to leave me like that?"

"It doesn't mean I'm going to go on ignoring my brother," she sighed.

"I bet you're going to join anyway, aren't you?" he said. "And leave me alone again?"

"Nico, wait—"

Nico stormed back to his dorm.

"This is why I don't like boys," Zoë sighed.

"Why don't you go apologize and calm him down later?" Rachel suggested. "No offense to you, Zoë, but I think Bianca should wait on the decision for a while. I sense that… that it wouldn't be wise and cause some more trouble." Her green eyes sparkled.

Bianca nodded absently. "Nico is a bit troublesome sometimes. I worry about him. But then again, it's partly my fault for trying to avoid him so much."

Rachel patted her shoulder. "You can fix that. You can change many things during the short time you have. You just have to try and do it."

"Thanks," Bianca said. "You're Rachel right?"

Rachel nodded. "And that's Juniper."

"I've heard a lot about you," Bianca smiled. "They find you weird, but you're great."

"Thanks."

Bianca stood up. "I think I'll go visit Nico now. Don't tell anyone that I'm going to the boys' dorms."

"Sure thing," I said.

"Thank you," she said. "Zoë, I'll see you later!"

She ran off.

"Let's go back to Grover and Annabeth," Juniper suggested. "It looks like they're having a fun time."

I looked back and saw Grover and Annabeth laughing their heads off. "Yeah, sure."

Rachel smiled and we walked back.

"You two having fun?" Juniper asked.

Grover nodded, his eyes watering. "I missed her."

"Same to you," Annabeth smiled and gave him a hug.

"But what happened to that new kid? We saw him crying," Grover said.

"Nico?" I asked. "Oh, um…"

"A little spat with his sister," Juniper said quickly. "You know, siblings?"

"Rachel," I whispered. "They know."

Rachel nodded. "I'll tell her."

"Okay, you little brats!" Mr. D yelled. "Dinner's over. Back to your dorms!"

Everyone shuffled around, giving final greetings and gathering their things.

"Rachel," I said. "Can you give me one more hint?"

She thought about it. "I hope you can read in another language."

She gave me one last grin and ran to catch up with Annabeth.

I frowned. I could hardly read in English, how would I be able to read in another language?

"Percy!" Grover said. "There you are!"

"You finally talked to Annabeth," I said. "Good job, man."

He smiled. "I'm glad that she doesn't hate me. She-she was best friends with Thalia."

"She wouldn't hate you," I said. "It wasn't your fault."

He nodded half-heartedly. "Thanks, Perce."

When we went to our dorm, I could still hear Bianca in Nico's room. "Nico, you're right. I'm sorry. You're all I have, and I'm all that you have. We don't have anyone else."

"Bianca, I'm sorry too. I'm just being selfish like always," Nico said. "I just want you to be happy."

"I want the same for you," she said. "Nico… I'm going to try to get us out of this. I don't know how, but I'm going to try. No matter what it takes."

"Thanks, Bianca," Nico sniffed. "You know, I miss the time when we were all together with Mom and Dad."

"I know," Bianca said. "Me too. It seems so long ago, doesn't it?"

I knocked on the door. It was open.

"Um, Bianca?" I said, peeking through the door. She was sitting on the bed, hugging a crying Nico and patting his back.

"Oh, Percy!" she said. "What time is it right now?"

"Dinner's over. Everyone went back to the dorms," I said.

"Okay. Thanks," she said. She stood up. "I'll see you in the morning Nico."

She gave him a light kiss on the cheek and left. I closed the door and sat next to Nico.

"Hey, you okay?" I said gently.

Nico nodded. "I don't deserve to have a sister like Bianca. She's so nice and caring, and I'm just being selfish and trying to have her for myself. She tries to do anything that'll make me happy, no matter what'll happen. Like when she stole some money from the bank to buy my favorite snack for me even though she was starving."

"She sounds like very nice sister," I said. "And don't say that she doesn't deserve you. From what I've heard, you're all she has left of your family. She loves you a lot."

"But I don't give her anything in return," Nico said.

"Seeing you happy probably makes her happy," I said. It was something my mom always said to me when we lived with Smelly Gabe. Small things that rebelled against Gabe, like blue food.

He wiped away his tears that started to fall again. "Percy, can you promise me something?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Protect my sister. I don't want her getting hurt or… killed. Just for me," Nico said.

"I'll try my best," I said. "I don't know much either, but I'll try."

"Promise."

I sighed. "Alright. I promise to keep your sister safe, as much as I can."

He gave me a small smile. "Thanks. Don't break the promise."

I nodded and ruffled his hair. "Well, bedtime for you now."

"I'm not a kid," Nico said.

"To me, you still are," I said.

"You're just like my sister," he said, and plopped back down on his bed.

I stood up to leave. "Wait, Nico. You know how you said Bianca stole some money from the bank right? Is that why you two got sent here?"

Nico nodded. "At least, I think so. We got tracked down, and Bianca took the blame, but they sent me here too. They didn't clearly explain _why_ we were here, but I'm guessing that's the reason."

"Okay. Thanks," I said. "Good night, Nico."

"'Night," he said.

I smiled and went back to my room.

I sat at my desk looking at the clock. _12:39._ Should I go out now? There still might be students sneaking out for midnight snacks from the store since the cafeteria was closed off. I stifled a yawn. I couldn't be tired now. I had to go look in the library.

I waited until the clock showed _1:24_. I pulled on an extra sweatshirt and sneaked out. I got out of the dormitories and saw the school store still open. The students must've forgotten to lock it again.

I looked around the dark and finally found what I wanted. A flashlight.

I switched it on and went to the other building. I went up the stairs, wincing at every squeak I made. I heard a _thump _right when I finished climbing the stairs. I ran to the library, not wanting to know what that thump was.

In my defense, the school was pretty scary at night. There were a lot of big shadows because of the walls that blocked us out. And there were some weird noises, probably from the third floor of the dormitories. I wondered if there was a third floor in this building too.

But that dog incident was pretty scary. You think you're getting used to life at a criminal school, and _BOOM!_ No chance. A big black dog comes out of nowhere to attack you.

I sighed as I scrolled through the titles. Rachel said a different language. Most of these were in English. My flashlight passed over a title that definitely didn't seem English. I pulled it out. It was pretty dusty, like no one really looked at it much.

I put light over the title. Of course they wouldn't read this. It was in Greek! Αθηνάς Παρθένου. I smiled. I wasn't the best at Greek, but I could read some. My mom tried to teach me when I was younger. Was this the only one?

I heard footsteps, and quickly turned off my flashlight. I flipped through the pages, ignoring the dust that was flying into my face. The book slowed down, and I saw a piece of paper slipped in the pages.

I took it out and tried to read it. Unfortunately, it was in English. It was already hard enough with my dyslexia, and now in the dark!

I scowled as I tried to read it. The footsteps were coming closer.

_To whoever is reading this:_

_ This school isn't normal. I'm still finding out more myself. There's people who get detention and don't come back. And those who do, sometimes they've gone mad. They can't talk properly, and they seem scared of everything, at least the few that I saw. And then they disappear, or in a few cases, released and sent to a mental hospital._

_ They only seem to give detention to certain people. There are people that they don't give detention to, no matter what they do. I'm one of them. I even threw a chair at a teacher to see if I would get detention. I didn't. There are people who get detention for not doing anything! I've seen people get detention because their shirt wasn't tucked in._

_ Then there are those weird blood tests that they give you when you enter the school. I don't know what they are, but there's something not normal about it. I got one of those weird blood tests too. It was weird. I'm not sure what it did, but I'm pretty sure it's not those regular blood tests like the one you get at hospitals. I'd explain more, but I don't remember it clearly._

_ Whatever you do, be careful in this school. You don't want to get on their bad side. And one favor: place this note in a different book. It can be anything._

_-Ath. C._

_P.S. The next note will be in one of my favorite books by J.A. _

_And actually, forget that initial. I don't care if the staff finds this note. What are they going to do to me anyway? I'm Annabeth Chase, and I'm not ashamed of what I'm doing right now._

I gulped and fumbled with the book. I quickly put it back in its place. I grabbed the _Iliad_ and was about to put the note in it, when someone flashed their light in my eyes.

"And what do you think _you're_ doing?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the somewhat-cliffy-ending for the last chapter. XD Truth to be told, I finished this chapter yesterday. I don't feel like responding to reviews right now, so don't get offended that I didn't respond to your review.**

**I hope it isn't crazy for me to hope that this will be the most popular story that I wrote... Unless I write better ones than this in the future. Meh.**

**Also, can anyone recommend me some fics? I'm having trouble finding some decent ones (no offense).**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

"I think I'm having a late-night read, thank you," I retorted. I put the book back, but Dr. Thorn quickly grabbed my arm.

"It's not night," he said.

"Fine. An early-morning read."

He rolled his eyes. "No students out after 10 PM."

"And how many students do you see following that rule?" I said.

Dr. Thorn scowled. "I would like to know what you were doing with that book, Jackson."

"I told you. I was _reading_ it," I said exasperatedly.

His grip on my arm tightened. "And how well can you read? Especially in a different language?"

"Fairly well, thank you," I said. "Now let me go."

"I never knew you could _read._ With dyslexia, and this book is in Greek. How challenging," he said, grabbing the book_._

I mentally hit myself. I had accidentally grabbed the Greek copy of the _Iliad._ Why did they even have those here in the first place?

"Just because I'm dyslexic doesn't mean I can't read," I spat. "I'm in 10th grade. I _know_ how to read."

"What a pleasant surprise," he said.

My hand clenched into a fist. It took all my willpower not to punch him.

"If you would please, Dr. Thorn," I said in a deadly quiet voice. "I would like it if you would let me go back to my room now."

I pulled my arm away.

Dr. Thorn simply used amused. "And what exactly were you doing with this book?"

He flipped through the pages, and I paled. He couldn't see the note—Annabeth would get in trouble!

"Ah ha," he said, pulling out the note.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I grabbed the note and gave him a good punch in the gut. He fell, and I tried to run, but he grabbed my ankle. I fell on my face.

"Not very graceful, are you Jackson?" he smirked.

"Criminals aren't known to be graceful," I said. I kicked away from his grip, but Dr. Thorn caught up to me in a few strides.

"Give me that note Jackson," he said. "Or I'll take it by force."

"I'd like to see you try."

He pulled something out of his pocket—a small vial of green liquid. He drank it, and dropped the vial, shattering into tiny pieces. He started changing. His body slowly morphed into a lion's body with a scorpion tail. His heterochromatic eyes stayed the same. His hand turned into a large orange paw.

"Looks like Daedalus has come through," he said, looking at his body.

"A monster," I said, backing up. "You-you… you're a monster."

A projectile zipped passed me, tearing the note from my hand. I looked back and saw a spike embedded in the note, pinning it to the bookshelf.

"Nice," Dr. Thorn said. "Let's see what else I can do."

He sent another spike at me which I barely dodged. I managed to get back to the bookshelf and tried to pull out the spike. No use. It was too strong.

Dr. Thorn laughed. His new form allowed him to move quicker than an average human. He swiped his paw at my chest. It left a stinging pain like from the dog. I felt more blood.

I ducked under his next swipe and picked up my flashlight. I shined it in his eyes.

"Ahh!" he screamed.

He aimed some random spikes and started swiping the air in front of him. Some of his spikes missed, but one grazed my shoulder and pinned me to the shelf. His paw swiped the flashlight out of my hand, and scraped my chest again.

I screamed. I fell on my knees, ripping my shirt.

Thorn morphed back into human. He pulled the spike out with no problem. I guess some of the strength stayed with him.

I looked at him, but my vision was blurring. My shoulder was burning with pain. It hurt more than my chest even though I got hit twice there. I saw Dr. Thorn's face turning redder and redder as he read the note. I was pleased by that scene, but Annabeth would get caught.

"No," I muttered.

I tried to get up, but he dropped a heavy book on my chest. More pain.

He crumpled up the note in outrage and pulled me up roughly. "Come."

"No," I said.

"Then I'll drag you."

He did.

He grabbed me by my hood and dragged me back to the dormitory.

"Why are we going to the girls' dorms?" I asked. The truth didn't hit me until later. "You're not going to hurt her."

"Don't tell me what to do," he snarled, and swiped my head with his paw. I guess he could control his transformations now? Did that thing have like a time limit or something?

He stopped at Room 06G. My eyes widened. "No."

He banged my head against the door and kept knocking for at least five minutes. My head was ringing, and the pain was too much. I slouched between Room 06G and 05G.

"What do you want?" Annabeth said, finally opening the door. "It's rude to interrupt someone's sleep. Especially when it's past one. Plus male teachers aren't allowed here, and I believe that you, sir, are a male."

Dr. Thorn glared at her and showed her the note. She looked up at him. "So? What's your point?"

"You're rebelling against the school."

"Oh, gee. What a surprise," she said dryly. "For all you know, it can be someone posing as me."

"Do you really think I would believe that?"

She shrugged. "It was worth a try to see how stupid you were." She didn't seem to have noticed me. Then again, it was dark, and she was probably really tired. "If you don't mind, I'll be going back to sleep now. Good night." She closed the door, but he stopped her. "Excuse me. You're already being rude enough to disturb a student's sleep for a silly _note!_ And you're breaking your own rules at your own school, and you're complaining that _I'm_ rebelling!"

"You're coming with me," he said.

"I refuse," she said. "You are not my teacher or counselor. You're not even supposed to be here."

I smiled a bit. That was Annabeth. Stubborn, and a bit too prideful for her own good. But that's what made her Annabeth.

"And besides," she smirked. "It's not like those things are true anyway."

That made him snap. He punched the door and it flew off its hinges. It flew somewhere in her room, and I heard several cracking sounds. Annabeth didn't react.

"You're coming with me," he repeated. He grabbed my hood again. "Or he gets it."

He eyes widened. "Percy," she whispered.

"What's going on here?" Mrs. Kerr said. "You're going to wake up the whole school! And males in the girls' dorms! Goodness!"

"Blame him," I groaned, pointing at Dr. Thorn.

Mrs. Kerr gave me a horrified look. "I'm going to go get Mrs. Dodds. She'll know what to do." _Not._

"Percy, what happened?" she said. She glared at him.

"Choose. You or the boy," he grinned.

"She's right," I said. "This school isn't normal. A normal teacher doesn't turn into a monster and hurt the students at their own school."

He dropped me, and I fell on my knees again.

"What's going on here?" Chiron said. Mrs. Dodds was right behind not looking pleased. Chiron probably came by himself and just happened to run into Mrs. Dodds. "Oh, dear."

I saw Bianca peeking out, her face pale, along with a few other girls. I shook my head, but she still left her room. She told the others to go inside.

"Chiron," Annabeth said. "He hurt Percy, and he's interrupting my sleep and probably some of the others, when he's not supposed to be here in the first place."

"It's not like that!" Dr. Thorn said and showed him the note.

"Ah, I see," Chiron said reading through it quickly. I envied him for being able to read that so quickly. "Well, I'm not going to say this is true, but we _are _disturbing others. Anyone care to explain exactly what happened?"

Annabeth gave him a quick rundown of the story.

"Just give Mr. Jackson detention!" Mrs. Dodds said. "Simple!"

Dr. Thorn nodded.

"No," Chiron said. "That won't—"

"What's going on here in the middle of the night?" Panacea shrieked. Bianca was with her. "Oh look. Percy, what happened to you?"

"Uh…"

"Okay, all of you, we're going to my office. No excuses," she said. She ushered all of us, even the teachers out.

"You okay, Percy?" Bianca asked as she helped me walk.

"I've been better," I said. The pain was sapping my ability to think.

"I never really liked him," Bianca said motioning to Dr. Thorn. "He's the one who caught us."

"Oh," I said. "Sorry for waking you, by the way."

Bianca shrugged. "I'm still in my pajamas, but I'm fine. Tomorrow's the weekend anyway. You should be worried about yourself!"

She set me down in the bed as instructed.

"This is bad," she said, as the others started discussing things. "I'm going to go get some supplies."

"Percy, I'm so sorry," she said. Her eyes watered. It was the first time I've seen her this weak. "I should've told you."

"No, it's my fault," I said. "I should've waited until tomorrow. I was being stupid." I gave her a weak smile. "I'll go with Thorn. You have to keep researching."

She shook her head. "Percy, no. I won't let you."

I saw Mrs. Dodds leave the room with a smug smile on her face.

"Annabeth," Chiron said. "You're going with Dr. Thorn."

Her face paled. "Just a minute sir."

"No waiting," Dr. Thorn said, and grabbed her.

"Percy," she said, trying to resist. "Keep on searching, okay?" He pulled her roughly, and she gave him a small smile. "I'll give you until I come back."

She let herself be taken away.

"Annabeth," I said, trying to get up.

"Oh, no you don't," Panacea said. She started bandaging my wounds. Bianca stayed by my side.

She gasped when she reached my shoulder. "Mr. Brunner," she called. "It's poison."

Chiron wheeled over. I winced when he touched it. "It hasn't gotten too far yet. We can still save him."

"I'm right here, you know," I said, letting my presence be known.

"Panacea, go get everything you have."

She rushed out.

"Percy," Chiron said. "Keep this. I think you'll need it." He smiled and put Annabeth's note in my hand. "Like Miss Chase said—you'd better find all of those quickly."

He left.

"I don't even know why we have these things," Panacea said, bringing some things that were probably antidotes. "Just try to relax. This'll hurt."

That was an understatement.

Bianca blocked her ears.

"Sorry," she said. "Ready for another one?"

"No," I said. "Please, not today."

"Then take this," she said. "It'll slow down the poison for a while."

She gave me some nasty tasting medicine.

"You'll be staying here at least over the weekends," she said. "Bianca, you can leave too."

"Okay," she said. "Will you be allowing visitors?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe, depending on his condition," Panacea said. "Just sleep, okay Percy?"

"Good night," Bianca said.

"'Night," I mumbled as she turned the light off.

* * *

I woke up a few hours later into a world of pain. "Panacea?"

"Percy! Oh, you're awake," she said. She stuffed something down my throat. The pain eased slightly.

"It hurts," I said.

"Of course it does," she said. "It's a strong poison, but it travels slowly." She applied slight pressure on my chest. "Does this hurt?"

"No," I said. "I only feel my shoulder."

"Oh, that's big trouble," she said. "I don't think we can cure this with anything we have here. I'm going to go talk to Quintus. I'll be right back."

She left.

"Psst. Hey, Percy!" someone whispered.

"Rachel?" I said in disbelief. She was standing by the foot of the bed.

"The Stolls helped me get in," she said. "I brought you some candy, in case you were craving some junk food." She put a small bag of candy on the bed.

"Thanks."

"You feeling all right?" she asked.

I shook my head. "It hurts too much."

"Well…" she said pulling out something from her sweatshirt pocket. "I got this from Lee and Michael. Apparently it numbs the pain for approximately three hours, but it's best if you don't take too much."

"Give me one," I said and she gave me the pill. I popped it in my mouth and Rachel got me a glass of water. The pain disappeared. "Thanks."

"I heard that Annabeth got taken away," Rachel said. "Can you tell—"

We heard the door open.

"Ask Bianca," I said. "You're going to get caught."

She nodded. "Get well."

She jumped out the window right when Panacea came in. I hid the candy under my blanket.

"We'll get you something to treat to poison around lunchtime," she said. "Do you want anything?"

"I'm fine. Thanks, Panacea," I said.

She smiled and left the room.

I looked at Annabeth's note. It was crumpled and a bit torn, but it was still readable. _Annabeth_, I thought. I carefully put the note in the candy bag. I'd find her as soon as I was in good condition.

I didn't care even if I had to go through that crazy-morphing Dr. Thorn again. I'd find her, wherever she was.


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't really like this chapter because of the big time skip. I'm not good at writing natural time skips. Oh well. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed.**

**TheKookieKing11- Thanks. I'll go check those out. :)  
**

**no one (Guest)- Thanks. You'll have to wait and see. But no, they're not demigods.  
**

**ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- That's how I felt when I read the Titan's Curse. .u. But don't worry. She should be back soon. ;)  
**

**A regular demigod- Thank you. I'll try reading those.  
**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

"Here, try this," Panacea said a few hours later. She handed me a glass of the thing I spit out the other time.

"Is that the same thing that tasted awful?" I asked.

"It's been modified," she said. "I don't know how it tastes like, but Quintus tested it out and proved that it does have some healing qualities. Or you can pour it directly over a wound. That helps too."

"Who's Quintus?"

"Just drink."

She shoved the drink down my throat, and I almost gagged. It tasted of all the things I hated. Like the first time I tried cigarettes, and when I accidentally drank Gabe's beer as a kid. A mix of those and a few other things came down my throat.

"Swallow," she urged.

I did.

"Yuck!" I said.

Panacea poured some of it on the poisoned shoulder, and more pain came. _Endure it,_ I told myself mentally.

Surprisingly the pain went away as quickly as it came. I made the mistake of flexing it, and it hurt like crazy.

"There," Panacea said and wrapped my shoulder in another bandage. "It should heal in a few hours or so. But I'm not letting you out."

"Can I have visitors then?" I said.

"Fine," she said. "If it gets you to shut up."

"Harsh."

She smiled. "Just kidding. You might want to brush your teeth. Your breath smells…"

"Yeah, sorry," I said, rubbing my neck. "That thing tasted like all the things I hated."

"Thanks for your input," she said. She rummaged around in her desk at the front and threw me a toothbrush and toothpaste. "Now go brush."

* * *

Things were boring until Grover came in.

"Looks like this'll be your second home," he observed.

"Yeah," I sighed.

"'You didn't see Annabeth, have you?" he asked. "I didn't see her all day!"

Guilt choked my throat. "No."

"Percy, seriously," Grover said. "I just started to mend things with her, and she just… disappeared!"

"Dr. Thorn took her," I said. "It was my fault."

Grover stared at me with his mouth open. "What? When?"

"Dawn," I said. "You didn't hear about it from the girls?"

He shook his head.

"Go ask," I said. "I'm going to try to find her. And I will."

"I'll help," he said. "But don't try anything until you can leave. I don't want you getting hurt anymore."

"Sure," I said, and he left.

* * *

I was let out the next day. I asked Rachel to see if Annabeth had our book report in her room, and I went over to the library to type it. It was torture, especially without Annabeth, but I did it. I spent the rest of the day looking for the book by J.A. with Bianca. No luck.

"We'll try tomorrow," Bianca said. "Can you come by Room 48? We can go together."

I nodded. "But why are you helping me? Not that I don't want you to."

She shrugged. "Looks like you can use an extra hand. And if I want to get Nico get out of here, I need all the information I can get."

She met my eyes, and I knew that she knew the fact that I was eavesdropping on them the other day. I blushed.

* * *

We didn't find anything for a month.

"This is hopeless!" I complained as we walked to the library.

"Don't say that," Bianca chided. "We'll find them."

I saw Rachel go into the art room. "I'll be right back."

"Hey!"

Rachel turned around. "Percy! Hey."

"Do you happen to know Annabeth's favorite book by J.A.?" I asked.

She grinned. "No luck with that, sir."

"Aw, come on!" I said. "Really. I want to get Annabeth back as soon as possible. Why can't I just go and find her?"

"You won't achieve anything in that part until you find all the notes," she said.

"Is that one of your predictions?"

"Yup," she said. "And you should be glad that Malcolm's letting you off the hook so that you only show up once a week!"

Oh, Malcolm. Malcolm was Annabeth's half-brother. He took over when Annabeth didn't come back. Rachel was friends with him so explained to him part of what I was doing and how it might help find Annabeth which was the only reason why he let me off like that.

"Right," I muttered. "Thanks, Rachel."

She gave me a small smile and went to her art class.

"No luck," I said.

"That would be too easy," Bianca agreed. "How about this: we look for famous books or authors. Annabeth might like classics."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

"I'll take a look around," she said, and went over to the classics section.

"Excuse me?" I said. The librarian looked up. He was reading a book with a picture of a guy flying on a broom this time. I wasn't really into fantasy. "Are there any famous books by an author with the initials J.A.?"

"Pride and Prejudice," he said immediately.

"Okay. Thank you," I said. "Bianca!"

"It's the library. Sush!" someone said.

I ignored them.

"Did you find it?" she asked.

"Pride and Prejudice," I said. "I've heard of it, but I never read it."

"Of course!" she said.

"Who's it by?" I asked, feeling like an idiot.

"Jane Austen," she said. "There are several copies. Percy, help me check them."

Several was an understatement. This school must've loved that book because it filled three rows. Bianca made me check the upper rows since I was taller.

"Found it!" Bianca said fifteen minutes later fruitless searching.

"Let me see," I said.

She took out a small piece of paper.

_Dear to whoever is reading this:_

_ They say that they check letters and packages, but they don't. Well, they only check packages. My friend set up a camera in the room, so we saw. I don't think they really care for letters or they're just too lazy to check them. Maybe they think it's too personal, but I doubt they care about that. So you can just write anything and it'll go straight pass their noses. Just be careful about the packaging._

_Please place this note in another copy of Pride and Prejudice. Every note after this will be placed in random books._

_-Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)_

"Of course this had to be one of the shorter ones," I sighed as I picked out a random copy.

"Hey, at least we found something," Bianca said. "And maybe she put the notes in some other books she enjoys."

"But how will we find out her favorite books?" I asked.

"I'll check her room today," she said. "It's open."

"Okay," I said. "You should go spend some time with Nico. I think he ditched Study Hall. I'm going to keep on looking."

"No you're not," she said. "We're _both_ going to take a break. That means you too. And you're not sneaking back here in the night. You saw how well that worked out last time. Understand?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "Great. Let's go."

I've grown to like Bianca during the last month I spent with her. But not in like _that_ way. I liked her as a sibling. She was like a sister I could depend on. I couldn't say no to her.

"Hey, Nico," I said.

He was outside sitting under a tree in the corner.

"Hey," he said.

"Sorry for stealing your sister's time," I said, sitting next to him. Bianca went to his other side. "We were busy."

He raised an eyebrow, probably trying not to laugh.

"Oh, god. Not in _that_ way," Bianca said slapping his arm.

Nico laughed. "I know. I'm just kidding. What were you two doing anyway?"

"A scavenger hunt thing," I lied. "Someone hid something in random books and we're trying to find them."

"How many are there?" he asked.

I shrugged. "We don't know."

"How many did you find?"

"Two."

"What are they about?"

"Random things."

"Who wrote them?"

"A student."

"Then—"

"Nico, don't overwhelm him with questions," Bianca said.

Nico grinned. "That's my specialty."

Bianca groaned.

"We'll fill you in on everything once we find all the notes," I promised. "Is it okay if I borrow Bianca until then?"

Nico shrugged.

"I'm human, not an object," Bianca interjected.

We laughed.

"Who knows, Bianca?" Nico said. "You might just be a human-like robot. That'd be cool. A robot for a sister."

She rolled her eyes. "Now I know that you've been watching way too many sci-fi movies."

"Or you could be a living doll," I said. "Like in the movies, the dolls are possessed and they move around."

Bianca rolled her eyes again. "And _you've_ been watching too many horror movies."

We ended up laughing again.

"Hey, what's up?" Luke said. He climbed over the wall from the other side.

"How do you not get caught?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Practice, I guess. Plus I disable all the security cameras and hack into their system to make sure that they don't see me. That's why Annabeth had me help her."

"Nice," Nico grinned.

"I stole some movies," Luke said. "They don't have any here which is a pity. Does anyone want to have a movie night?"

"Yeah!" Nico said.

"Wait, is G or PG?" Bianca asked.

"PG-13," Luke answered.

"Then Nico can't go," Bianca said.

"Bianca!" Nico said.

"What about you Percy?" Luke asked.

I looked at Nico and I couldn't say yes with him like that. "Sorry Luke," I said. "But I have to get my sleep since I have that math test tomorrow, and you know I'm awful at it. Especially with Mrs. Dodds as my teacher."

Luke nodded. "Okay. See you around, Perce. You're always welcome to join if you change your mind."

He ran off. I frowned. He didn't seem all that affected about Annabeth disappearing. Then again, most of the teachers (except Mr. Blofis and Chiron) didn't really seem to care. But they work here so they probably know what's happening.

Grover on the other hand was hysterical. Rachel was sad too, but she tried to be positive and boost our moods.

"Hey, you three!" Rachel said. She had her sketchbook in her hands and her uniform was splattered with paint. "Here, look what I drew. And painted."

I showed us a page from her sketchbook that showed the three of us laughing under the tree.

"You were watching us, weren't you," Nico said.

Rachel nodded. "You guys looked so happy, so I chose to draw you guys."

It actually looked pretty good. Then again, Rachel was an amazing artist.

"It looks good," I said. "Are you going to frame it on your wall?"

She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe. Did you find the note though?"

I nodded. "Thanks to Bianca."

Rachel frowned as the wind whipped her hair. "You'd better find all the notes soon." She paused and her green eyes brightened for a moment. "Before things get severe."

"How long?" I asked.

"A week at most, I think," she said, and her eyes returned to normal. "They're serving dinner in our rooms today, so I guess I won't be seeing you. Bye!"

"You saw that, right?" Bianca said. "Her eyes?"

Nico nodded. "It was cool. I wish my eyes were like that."

I didn't listen to them. "A week. A week at most. I think I'm going to go back to my dorm. See you."

"Percy," Bianca said and grabbed my arm. "You're not going to sneak off into the library tonight. Okay?"

I nodded. "I won't. Promise."

"Good." She let go of my arm, and I walked back to my dorm.

The first thing I did was check my mailbox. I kept doing that for the past month because my mom still didn't reply yet. I wrote her a letter every week. It was strange how she didn't reply to any one of them. But today, there was an envelope. I grinned and looked at it.

I frowned. It was my mother's handwriting, but some of it got smudged. Someone tried scribbling over the school address, but looked like it got here anyway. The stain covered at least half the envelope. It looked familiar.

I opened it, and was shocked to find that part of the letter was torn off. The remaining was smudged badly, almost unreadable, and it looked like someone crumpled it up.

_Dear Percy,_

_ I'm sorry I didn't reply to you. Gabe kept interrupting, and I didn't have any time to write it at work. He doesn't like me writing to you and he's really sensitive about it which is why I took so long. I didn't read all your letters. But I read part of the one where you told me Annabeth was taken away. I didn't get to read all of it, so I don't know exactly what happened. If you're going to find her, be careful._

_ As for your dad, I got through his wife. She's a nice woman. She asked me how I knew his personal number, and told me that she'll tell him that I called. For some reason he didn't change his number even after more than ten years._

_ Gabe isn't getting any better. In fact, he's getting worse. He's drinking more often. Percy, I don't want to worry you anymore, but I know you'll ask. Yes, he is hitting me, but don't worry honey. I'm fine. I stay out of the apartment most of the time anyway because of all the jobs. Don't worry over me._

_ I'm worried that Daedalus is working at your school. I'm guessing you didn't find that much about him still. His work isn't known clearly, so no work has been done about him. His real name is Quintus, but everyone calls him Daedalus because of his genius mind. You know, he worked at Olympus then moved over to the smaller company almost no one knows about—the Labyrinth. But the Labyrinth—_

The ripped letter ended there. I scowled. The letter had a disgustingly pungent smell. I took the risk and smelled it. It smelled like Gabe.

So he didn't like me sending letters and my mom replying. What's up with that? Does he hit my mom just because of that? My hand clenched into a fist. So that's why I didn't get any letters.

I wondered what struggle my mom had to go through to send me this. Maybe it was safer not to send letters to my mom.

I felt like all the hope I had was taken from me. Annabeth was taken to who-knows-where and my mom and I couldn't even exchange letters.

I sat hunched on the edge of the bed, staring until space, and stayed like that until next morning.


	13. Chapter 13

**I had like no inspiration so this chapter was so hard to write. **

**TheKookieKing11- Remember, ambrosia and nectar don't exist. They're attempting to make one, but obviously it didn't turn out exactly like nectar. That's why it's still an experiment.  
**

* * *

"Percy, you okay?" Grover said waving his hand in my face.

"Huh?" my head shot up. "Yeah."

"You fell asleep," he hissed. "Mrs. Dodds is passing the tests out."

I quickly sat up in my seat pretending that I didn't fall asleep in the first five minutes of class. Mrs. Dodds slammed the test on my desk giving me a dirty look like always.

"You have until this period ends," she said. "No cheating!"

I saw some students roll their eyes. I saw the Stoll brothers exchanging sneaky glances. Maybe I _should've_ stayed asleep.

I got started on my test, but I didn't even know half the things listed here. I should've paid more attention. I heard snickers coming from the side.

I looked over and saw Connor pointing at the floor, and Travis laughing his head off.

"Silence!" Mrs. Dodds said. "Unless you want detention."

Travis raised his hand, stifling his laughter.

"Yes, what is it, Mr. Stoll?" she said.

"There's a stink bomb ready to go off in thirty seconds right below you," he said.

Mrs. Dodds looked down. "Don't be stupid, Mr. Stoll. There's nothing."

"Made you look," Connor whispered.

"It's in the form of a spider, so maybe you didn't notice, but it's there," Travis reassured. "Everyone else should evacuate."

We ran out of our seats. The bomb exploded before we even went out the door.

"Hey, that wasn't even thirty seconds!" Grover protested.

Connor made a _tut tut_ sound. "It was a trick, my dear Grover. A trick."

"Stolls!" Mrs. Dodds said gagging. "Detention for both of you!"

"But Mrs. Dodds, you don't have proof that they did it," I said quickly. I didn't want them to get detention after what I saw. "They only said that they saw it, and they got the timing wrong too. So you have no proof that they did it."

"Wow, Percy. Have you been studying or something?" Sloan laughed.

I scowled at him.

"Please remain silent, Mr. Sloan," Mrs. Dodds snapped. "I'll let them go for now."

"That's what she always says when she fails," Connor said rolling his eyes. "Thanks, Perce."

I gave him a grin.

"Back to testing!" she said.

"But it's too smelly to think!" someone said.

"Ditch!" Travis said, and we cheered.

We pushed each other besides Mrs. Dodds's complaints.

"Woo!" Travis said.

We separated into different directions.

"We have about half the class left," Grover grinned. "What do you want to do?"

I shrugged. "By any chance, do you know Annabeth's favorite books?"

Grover gave me a puzzled look. "I only know the ones she enjoyed as a kid."

"That's good enough," I said. "It might help get Annabeth back. Tell me."

Grover brightened up and started listing books. "Well, she always liked _Classical Greek Architecture._ She probably had a whole bunch of other architecture books. And when she was around seven or eight, she liked _Treasure Island, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, _and I think _Gulliver's Travels._ Oh, and she also enjoyed _Little Women._"

"Thanks," I said.

"Anytime, Perce."

"Normally I'd help you sneak into the kitchen and get some enchiladas, but it's still closed off," I said. "You have any ideas?"

"Juniper's first class got canceled today," he suggested. "She should be outside."

"Okay," I said.

We went outside and saw her looking up at a tree.

"Hey," I said.

She smiled. "Hey, Percy. Hey, Grover."

"So, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Listening to the trees," she said.

"What are they saying?" Grover asked.

"This one's frustrated," she said. "The walls are too high and it can't see what's happening outside."

"Makes sense," he said.

They talked a bit about trees, and I spaced out. I had no idea what they were saying.

"Oh look. There's the bell," Juniper said. "I'll see you two later!"

She gave Grover a hug and went to her next class.

"Uh…" Grover's face was all red.

"You should make a move on her," I said. "You guys obviously like each other."

"But, what if she doesn't?"

I rolled my eyes. "Just ask her out. Don't let the girl make the first move!"

Grover rolled his eyes. "Even if I did and she said yes, there'd be no where to take her."

"The school's big. It's bound to have some secrets," I said, and I wished I could sew my mouth shut.

He laughed. "Sure."

Bianca was waiting for me at my second class.

"Hey Grover," she said. "I need to talk to Percy for a minute."

"Okay," he said. He looked between us, probably wondering what we were going to talk about, then went in.

"We're ditching," she said, walking away from the classroom.

"What?" I said. "We are?"

"Well, you _are_ following me to the library right now," she said.

"Oh, right. Didn't notice," I said. She was so smooth, unlike me.

"I have the list right here," she said waving a sheet of torn notebook paper in front of me.

"Grover told me some other books she used to like," I said.

She smiled. "That's great."

"Aren't you two supposed to be in class right now?" the librarian asked.

"Uh…" I said.

"Ditching? Not a problem," he said, waving his hand. "You two aren't the first. Just don't cause too much trouble."

"Yes, sir," Bianca said before I could say anything.

"So, what are we looking for first?" I asked.

"_Great Expectations,_" she said. "By Charles Dickens."

We found it quickly, but there were multiple copies, though not as much as _Pride and Prejudice._ We quickly checked all of them, but no note.

"I guess not that one then," Bianca said, crossing off the title. "Let's see… Oh, Shakespeare! _Midsummer Night's Dream._"

"I hate Shakespeare," I groaned.

And surprise, surprise. Multiple copies.

"I think she might have left a note in this one," Bianca said getting a stool. "And Percy. Don't tease me about my height."

I grinned. "Wasn't planning on it. But now that you mention it, you _are _pretty… short."

She hit my head with a copy of _Midsummer Night's Dream._

"I didn't mean it in a bad way!"

She just shook her head and grinned.

I pulled out another copy of the book. I scrolled through the pages and it stopped in the middle where a note was sticking out.

"Bianca, here," I said.

She took the note from me and read it out loud.

"_Dear whoever is reading this:_

_ Those blood tests aren't a good sign. They change something in your DNA causing some strange results. Some play with your brain and the whole thought process. _

_But they're still in prototype-mode so it's an experiment. That's right. They're using us as experiments. I have an idea what they might be doing for detention, but it's really farfetched. _

_As for me, I got a blood test when I entered this school which was when I was about thirteen. I don't remember it all exactly, and I've figured out why. I can't remember much from my life at home. I only know a few details like they weren't good to me, and I felt like the odd one out. And then I ran away._

_Anyway, back to the point. They injected something in me which tampered with my memory. I forgot some things, and I feel like some things never really happened. I think that they changed some things in my memory._

_But I believe there's a way to reverse that. I don't know how, but I think so. Be careful of those so-called blood tests._

_Please place this in another random book. Thank you._

_-Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)"_

"Give me that," I said. I pulled out a random book which turned out to be Dr. Seuss. Bianca gave me a look that said _Really?_ as I put it in there.

"It's so thin though," she said. "Won't it be too obvious?"

"But I don't think they'll be looking at Dr. Seuss in the first place," I said.

Bianca sighed. "You have a weird way of thinking."

"So I've been told."

Bianca laughed and checked off her list. "Next up. _Don Quixote._"

We spent the whole class time searching the library. We found a note in _Don Quixote_ which said that this definitely wasn't a school. No school has teachers that cuss at you. And she said that she saw a teacher hitting a student.

"Dang," I said. Bianca nodded in agreement.

"_A World History of Architecture,"_ Bianca said. "This one shouldn't be too hard."

No note in that one. Bianca kept listing off books, but we only found notes in three more in the list. Annabeth had a whole lot of books.

One of them said how the school shouldn't just have two floors. The building was structured to have more than two floors. _Maybe they only allow students to access two floors?_

The second one talked about Mr. D. His real name was Dionysus, and it was strange that he was working here because he works for Olympus. He owned a wine company. He seems to hate this job, yet he's worked here for a very long time.

The third one talked about the strange packages the school sometimes got. She doesn't know what's in them, but it seemed suspicious. The camera didn't focus well on the objects.

The bell rang. "Classes ended," Bianca said. "Do you want to stay or leave?"

"Stay," I said. "I want to see how much more we can find."

"Sure," she said. "I thought you'd say that so I got some chips from the store during one of our short breaks. Don't let the librarian notice though."

She took out a small bag of chips from her backpack.

"Thanks," I said and opened it. "Let's look for _Treasure Island_ next."

"Sure thing." She went on the library computer and did a search. She gave me a sheepish smile. "I never heard of it before, and I'm kind of tired."

"You can go if you want," I said.

"It's fine," she said. "_Treasure Island _by Robert Louis Stevenson."

"Fancy name."

She nodded. "There are five copies of it. Let's just hope there's a note in one of them."

Luckily, there was.

_Dear to whoever is reading this:_

_ A new girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare came. She's the daughter of Mr. Dare of Dare Enterprises. Really rich. I don't know why he would send her here._

_They gave her a "blood test" and something weird happened. I went to go talk to her, to see if there were any side effects. Of course, that took some time since you can't go up to a stranger and just say, "Hello. I'm wondering if that blood test made you go crazy or something."_

_Turns out that she can foretell some things in the future, but they're really vague. I don't know how this will turn out. She can't control her ability, so thoughts come to her randomly. I wonder if she'll have a prediction about this school soon._

_Like always, please put this in another book. Thank you._

_-Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)_

"Rachel enrolled here sometime after the second semester, almost when classes were ending," I said. "That was a year ago."

"Maybe Annabeth started these maybe a year ago? Not like right when she came here," Bianca suggested.

I nodded. "Maybe. I hope so. It's hard work looking for these notes."

"She doesn't put a date on these notes," Bianca noticed. She slipped the note inside a copy of _Code Name Verity._ "What other books did Grover tell you?"

"_Classical Greek Architecture, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, _and _Little Women,"_ I listed.

"She has good taste in books," Bianca said. I rolled my eyes. "You should try reading them too."

"Reading will be the death of me," I said. "I'll look for the first two. You look for the other two."

"Okay," she said.

I found a note in _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland._ I remembered that my mom read it to me once and I was so confused and didn't know what the heck was going on.

_Dear whoever is reading this:_

_ A student got released today. But it's strange. He murdered people. He killed off five people, yet they just released him. I mean, there are people who got sent here because of shoplifting, and _they're _not released. Are murders more serious than shoplifting? Seriously._

_I mean, sure that guy had detention a few times, but they claim that he's changed. I agree with them, but I don't think that change was natural. He's scared of everything. It's like a deer caught in headlights. He seems so weak. He's going into 12__th__ grade, and the timing is really awkward. It's the middle of break!_

_Please put this note in another book. Thank you._

_Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)_

"Bianca, did you find anything?" I asked.

Bianca shook her head. "I checked all the copies."

"I found one," I said waving it in her face.

She scowled and skimmed through the note. She put it in a book about rocks. "I guess you do have skill in finding things."

I ignored that comment. "So, how many do you think there are?"

Bianca shrugged. "It doesn't say the dates, so it's possible that we've missed some. We're probably not going in order."

I groaned.

"I think we just need to get the basic idea of what's going on here," Bianca said. "They can't really expect us to find them _all._ There could be hundreds in here! I think we just need to find most of them."

"Okay," I said. "Let's take a break. I'm beat."

"I'm not surprised," Bianca said.

I stretched. "I'm going to go find Nico. You want to come?"

She raised an eyebrow, probably wondering why I wasn't looking for Grover. "Sure. Last time I saw him, he was mad at me for not letting him go to Luke's movie night."

I laughed. "He probably got over that."

"I hope you're right," Bianca said. "I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day with him. He doesn't seem to have a lot of friends."

I frowned. "That's sad."

Bianca sighed. "Well, he says that he's used to it."

She left leaving me to follow her, not even giving me a chance to ask a question.


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks to everyone who liked/favorited/followed this story! :)**

**hermes child awesomness- Thanks. :)  
**

**Guest- I'm glad you like it.**

**YOLOgirl (Guest)- Most of it is correct. :) But Olympus is a famous company, and Percy (being the Seaweed Brain that he is) doesn't know much about it, but it's well known.  
**

**AMAZAMAZ (Guest)- Haha. Thank you! You're review made me really happy (I'm a suck like that, LOL). I'll try to update as much as I can, at least once a week, even when school starts (which starts in like three weeks... T^T).  
**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy~**

* * *

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. It turned out that Nico had made a friend named Hazel, the same age as him. Apparently she was fairly new to the school. She came a bit after me.

"Are we missing classes today to go look in the library?" I asked Bianca the next morning.

"I don't know," she said. "Do you want to?"

I yawned. "Sure. I don't want to go to Mrs. Dodds's class anyway."

She rolled her eyes playfully. "Don't get used to it."

"That's why I'm enjoying it right now."

"Percy!" Grover said rushing towards me with his plate, spilling some cereal in the process.

"Yeah? What's up?" I asked.

"Um…" he said. "I want to ask her out today."

"Juniper?" I said.

"Who else?" he said. He immediately blushed a deep crimson.

"Aw. That's sweet," Bianca smiled.

He cleared his throat. "But I don't know how! Should I just ask her out like during class or something? Or should I take her somewhere first and then ask her out? Or—"

"Grover, calm down!" I laughed.

"There's a really nice garden in the back of the school," Bianca suggested. "It's kind of hidden and you need to go around the secondary building, but there's a garden there. It's pretty quiet, and not a lot of people know about the place."

"Then who does the gardening?" I asked.

"Of course you would care about that Perce," Grover said.

Bianca laughed. "I'm not really sure. But I sneaked out of my room once and I saw a girl tending to the flowers. But I don't know who she is, and I know nearly all the girls here. I think she only comes around during nighttime though, so don't worry about it."

"Thank you Bianca. You're a lifesaver," Grover said. He finished off his cereal. "I'm going to go see if I can find it. See you guys later!"

He ran off.

"You weren't lying about that, right?" I asked.

"Of course not!" she said, as if appalled that I had even thought of that. "Like Annabeth said, there's a lot of secrets in this school."

"And a criminal school has hidden gardens," I said.

"Just believe it," she said. "I'm going to head to the library now. Can you bring some snacks?"

"I don't have any money," I said.

She rummaged around in her backpack and tossed me a ten dollar bill. I wondered where she got that. "Katie's helping out until class starts. Maybe she'll give you a discount."

She headed off toward the library while I stuffed my pancakes down my throat. I choked. Rachel slapped my back.

"Did you _have _to hit that hard?" I said.

She grinned. "Sorry. But it looked like you were going to die."

"Oh," I said, feeling my face heating up. "I'm going to the school store. You want to come?"

"Sure," she said. "I need to get some more paint anyway."

The inside of the store was pretty small, but cozy. It reminded me of the cabin that I used to go to with my mom in Montauk for some reason.

"Welcome," Katie said in a bored voice. Then she saw who it was and brightened up. "Oh, hey Percy! Nice to see you too, Rachel."

"Hey, Katie," I smiled.

I grabbed a few bags of chips while Rachel was debating which paints she should buy.

"I'll give you a discount," Katie said. "Thirteen bags of chips for ten bucks. How does that sound, Jackson?"

"Great," I grinned.

She took my ten. "Are you seriously going to eat these all?"

"I'm sharing with Bianca."

"Of course," she said. She took Rachel's money and handed her the change. "Oh yeah, Percy."

"Yeah?" I said.

"Chiron wanted me to tell you to see him after school," she said.

"Right," I said. "Thanks Katie."

"Anytime."

"How's the note searching doing?" Rachel asked as we walked to the building.

"Somewhat better than before," I said. "How many notes are there?"

"A lot," Rachel said. "How many did you find?"

"Five or more… I think."

Rachel shook her head. "There's over fifty of them in there. Annabeth might not have as much time as I thought."

"Wait, what?" I said, stopping her.

"A new prediction came last night," she admitted. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow what?"

"You have to go look for her tomorrow," Rachel said. "I have Luke cutting off all the power lines so that all classes will be canceled tomorrow. You _have_ to leave tomorrow."

"Wait, so she's not in the school?"

"Let's go somewhere where people won't hear us," she said.

"Just go to the library," I said, and she nodded.

"Back again?" the librarian asked. "And you've brought someone with you, I see."

"Hello," Rachel greeted.

I got us a table and brought over Bianca.

"So what's going on?" she asked.

I gave her a brief overview of what Rachel just told me.

"Okay, so go on," Bianca said.

"She's still in the school," Rachel said. "But I don't know where."

"How many floors can the buildings support?" Bianca asked. "Each."

Rachel shrugged. "I'm an artist. I'm not a genius on those subjects. I know a bit, of course, but I can't guarantee that the information I can give is accurate. That's Annabeth's field. Trust me. I want to find Annabeth as much as you do."

"What's your guess?" Bianca pressed.

Rachel got out her sketchbook and the bell rang. "Looks like I'll be missing class," she sighed.

She drew a quick sketch of the two buildings.

"The main building is pretty sturdy," she muttered. "It's bigger than a house, but smaller than an apartment building."

She made a few scribbles.

"This building that we're in right now," Rachel said, "seems to be able to hold maybe three or four floors. But they could've expanded the floor sizes to put only two, but that's very unlikely."

"But there's no stairs!" Bianca said.

Rachel looked at me. "Remember that third floor in the main building? The one that's somewhat-hidden?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"If they were following the original plans—which I don't have by the way. I 'm just guessing—it's not supposed to be hidden. It's supposed to look a bit more natural," Rachel said and drew a picture on what it was supposed to look like.

"So if there _are_ more than two floors here, you're saying that the stairway is hidden?" Bianca said.

Rachel nodded. "I don't know if it exists, but as far as I know, Annabeth doesn't know about any other floor here."

"Rachel, you _have_ to help us," I said. I didn't understand everything she just said, but I got the basic gist of it. "We need to get a basic idea of it if we're going to go look for her tomorrow."

Rachel hesitated, but nodded. "She made me promise not to tell, but it's for her own good. Now, the books that she hid them in, they're either connected to her, or they're following current events."

"She's scared of spiders," I said. "Maybe she hid one in a book about spiders?"

Rachel nodded. "In the nonfiction section. There's a big book on arachnids. Percy, you go look for that. I'll go with Bianca."

I raced over to the nonfiction section and tried to look for the book that Rachel was talking about. I found a book called _Arachnids_ and flipped through the pages. Nothing. _Simon & Schuster's Children Guide to Insects and Spiders_. Nope. _Spiders. _Nope.

I looked around for the girls and saw them looking at books about… Dobermans?

I shook my head and pulled out another book. _Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual._ I flipped through the pages and pulled out a note.

_Dear whoever is reading this:_

_ I keep hearing weird noises during the night. Maybe I'm just being sensitive, but there's a buzzing sound somewhere. I tried looking around for the source, but I have no idea where it's coming from. I checked both buildings thoroughly (Well, not the boys' dorms. That's just weird.)_

I scoffed. And she didn't find it any awkward when I was in the girls' dorms.

_-and there wasn't anything to be found. The noise gets louder when it's someone's detention day. I swear, I sometimes heard screaming from a nonexistent place._

_Please place this in another book._

_-Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)_

I stuffed it in a book about tarantulas. She probably wouldn't approve of it, but whatever.

"Found one," I said.

"We found one too," Bianca said. "It talked about how only specific people got detention."

"Mine talked about weird noises," I said.

"I think we can finish finding the main ones by lunch," Rachel said. "After that, we can start planning."

"Okay. How many more?" I asked.

"Well, the important ones…" she counted on her fingers. "Maybe eight? But the last few are the stuff you already know."

"Do you remember what books she put them in?"

"A book about San Francisco," she said. "And this sci-fi book… I think it was called _Ender's Game_ or something? She also put one in a book about Artemis."

"Alright," I stretched. "Let's get looking."

"Chips first," Rachel said. "Hand them over."

I rolled my eyes and distributed the chips.

"_Now_ let's get looking," Bianca said.

* * *

We were pretty productive and found the main notes plus some side notes before lunch.

"Looks like you gave Annabeth a good impression," Rachel snorted. She showed Bianca one of the notes we found, and she started laughing.

"Let me see!" I said and snatched the note from them.

_Dear whoever is reading this:_

_ A new kid came. It's strange since we didn't have a new student in ages. Maybe Rachel's prediction is coming true?_

_I think his name was Percy Jackson. I had Luke check his file. He sounds like trouble, but then again, this whole school is trouble._

_Apparently he lives with his mom and stepfather who's a drunkard. Sounds like Mr. D. His stepfather hates him. Also sounds like Mr. D._

_In fact (I'm writing this part last minute), I met the new kid on my way up here. I knocked him out. I couldn't have him knowing what I was doing. Especially if he's not the person that Rachel was talking about. I feel kind of bad for beating him up, but he was a good practice target, I guess. He looks kind of familiar. I can't place it though. And he needs a haircut.  
_

_Please place this in another book._

_-Ath. C._

_(Annabeth Chase)_

I scowled. "Target practice, huh?"

"There's another one about you," Rachel said and handed me another note. "It was in _Tom Sawyer."_

She said that I had dyslexia just like a whole lot of kids here, and that I seemed kind of dull when it came to academics.

"Thanks," I said.

"There's also these," Bianca grinned and gave me two more notes.

My expression darkened even more.

_I was right when I thought that he was going to be trouble._

_His insults kind of suck. I should give him lessons sometime._

_He's going to spend his lifetime in the hospital if he ever gets out of here._

_It's kind of annoying how his dyslexia is keep acting up. I have to finish this fact sheet on Othrys on my own._

_He's actually kind of fun to be around._

The girls laughed at my expressions.

"So anyway," I said pushing the notes away. "Who's going to go?"

"Something's wrong," Rachel said. "In the future and the past. Something went wrong."

"What do you mean?" Bianca asked.

"Something tells me that five people are supposed to go, but one of them is missing or dead," she said.

"How did you come up with _that?"_ I said dryly.

She slapped my arm. "It just came to me."

"So do we go with four then?" Bianca asked.

"I don't know," Rachel said. "Maybe. Probably."

"I'm going," I said.

"We know," Bianca said. "And we can't stop you. I'm going to go too."

"But Bianca," I said. "You could get hurt."

"If I get hurt, I get hurt," Bianca said. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weak."

"I was always told that, but after coming here, I have more proof of that," I said. "Grover's going to come too."

"Grover?" Bianca said. "I thought that he doesn't know any of this!"

"He doesn't," I said. "But he said that he's going to help find her. He said."

"All right then," Rachel said. "Who else?"

"Um," Bianca started. "Is it okay if Zoë comes? I think that she could be a nice addition."

"Sure," I said. "But doesn't she hate boys?"

"Hopefully it won't take long," Bianca said.

"Is that it? Or do we need to take another person?" I looked at Rachel. "Why don't you come along?"

"I'm sorry, but I won't be much help to you, even if I did tag along," she said apologetically. "As for the last member, as I've said, they're not here."

"Then what do we do?"

"Just take your current team," Rachel said. "Inform them of what you're going to be doing. And meet me in front of Chiron's room at…" she checked the clock. "11 PM tonight."

"What are we going to be doing?" I asked. "Won't we need some rest if we're going to leave tomorrow?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be a pussy, Jackson. You'd better show up on time."


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry if this chapter isn't that good. There's more of planning/talking more than action. It's kind of more of a filler chapter.**

**And just saying, my updates might become a bit slower when I start school in like two weeks. So... yeah. Just thought you guys should know.**

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* * *

I went back up to my dorm after dinner outside, and opened my mailbox by habit. _Right, she just sent me a reply,_ I thought, and was about to close it, but there was a letter. I frowned as I took it out.

The envelope had my mom's name on it, and it was addressed to me, but something seemed odd about it. It reeked, for one, as if someone sprayed Smelly Gabe perfume all over it. The stamp was placed messily in the corner, unlike my mom's—she likes to do it neat. There was something else, but I couldn't place my finger on what it was.

_I'm probably just being overly-sensitive,_ I thought and opened the letter.

_Hey punk. Don't even think about contacting your stupid mother. She's a coward._

He called her a bunch of names that I can't and won't repeat.

_Seriously. Running away? You're like her too punk. You're too much of a coward to do anything. You think that I can't touch you? You're wrong, punk. In fact, it's better that's she's gone. Does she really think that I can't find her? I have a wife and a stepson that are both stupid. Except maybe you got some more stupidity from your father._

Cue some more name-calling about the father that I don't even know.

_I'm going to make sure you never get out of that school, dead or alive. Just try to sneak out and fine your mom. See what'll happen if you don't believe me. You belong there with a bunch of criminals._

He didn't even sign the letter, as if that was supposed to hide who he was.

I scoffed and threw the letter on the desk. But what he wrote _did_ bother me. My mom ran away? Not that I blamed her. Gabe was awful.

But where did she go? Did she run to my dad's?

I flopped down on the bed, and landed on the spring.

"Ow!" I said and immediately jumped back up. Even after more than a month here, I still forgot about that.

I growled and carefully avoided the spring, but saw something sticking out of the mattress. I tried to feel it with my hand. It definitely wasn't a stray spring.

I went over to my desk and grabbed a pair of scissors and cut through. The thing that I felt was a dagger. No wonder it hurt.

But what was a dagger doing in my mattress? Was it someone's idea of a cruel joke?

My mind instantly wandered over to the Stolls, but I didn't think they could get a dagger past the staff.

I didn't think much about it and threw it on the floor as I fell asleep.

* * *

"Yo, Perce! Wake up!" Grover said banging on my door.

"I'm coming. I'm coming," I said and climbed out of bed. I stepped on the dagger. "Ow!"

"Uh, you all right?" Grover asked coming in. "You know what? We're late. Come on."

"I'm still in my pajamas," I said.

"Then you should've woke up earlier," he said looking around my room.

I covered the dagger so he wouldn't see. He looked at my table then shrugged.

"Hurry," Grover said.

I pretended to be busy with some things and snuck the dagger out with me. I had a feeling that I would need it.

"Oh, Rachel's going to be so mad," Grover said as we ran through the halls.

"What's the worst she can do?" I said.

He pulled me along to the other building. The others were already there.

"Tut, tut," Rachel said. "Late as usual."

"And in your pajamas," Bianca added.

My face heated up. "Shut up. And we're going tomorrow anyway."

Zoë rolled her eyes. "Boys."

Rachel knocked on Chiron's door three times. "Chiron, it's me, Rachel. With the others."

"Shouldn't he be sleeping right now? I mean, it's past eleven," I yawned.

Rachel rolled her eyes as the door opened.

"Hello. Nice to see you all," Chiron said smoothly.

"You're still awake?" I said.

"Why, yes, of course," he said. "I'm the vice principal after all. I care about my students."

"Right," Rachel said. "He's going to get you some weapons."

"Weapons?" Grover said. "Like as in guns and those things that can harm?"

"Yes, Grover. I believe those are called weapons," Chiron said. "Come in."

I kept my hand on the dagger. Would he be mad that I already had a weapon? Would I get expelled? Actually, that's sounding pretty nice right now.

Chiron unlocked a closet that I never knew existed until now. Inside were a bunch of weapons, ranging from spears to swords.

"Take your pick," Chiron said. "I don't recommend guns. They cause quite a lot of noise."

We let the girls go first. Bianca and Zoë picked out similar looking bows and quivers.

"I, um… I'm not comfortable with weapons," Grover admitted.

"That's perfectly fine," he said, which surprised me. "Percy, why don't you pick out something in the meantime? I'm going to get Grover some tips on healing."

Grover seemed pretty happy about that.

I looked at all the weapons hanging on the wall. I tried holding some of them, but they didn't feel right. Maybe it was just because I never used any besides for guns (which Chiron didn't recommend).

"This is why I said to come at eleven," Rachel said.

"Sorry," I mumbled, hanging up another sword.

"Is something the matter?" Chiron asked.

"None of the weapons seem to fit Percy," Rachel said.

"Ah, I see," he said. "Percy, come with me."

He wheeled away out of earshot from the others.

He studied me and nodded. "You look just like your father."

"Yeah, my mom tells me that a lot," I said. "Wait, you know my dad?"

"Why yes. He gave this to me and told me to keep it until the time was right."

Wow. That wasn't cheesy at all.

"Here," he handed me a cheap ballpoint pen. Probably cost thirty cents.

"This is a pen," I said. "I don't think my dad would make you hold onto a pen for who-knows-how-long."

Chiron chuckled. "Just uncap it when you need to find. It should prove to be useful."

He went back to the others.

"Can we go back to bed now?" Bianca asked.

"Not quite," Chiron said. He checked the clock which said 11:58. "You're going now."

"What?" I said.

"Can we get some coffee first?" Grover asked.

"We think it'd be best if you leave now," Rachel said. "The security won't be roaming until maybe four or five. So you'd better get started now."

"Can we get coffee though?" Grover repeated.

"I do not like to agree with boys, but I agree with this one," Zoë said.

"Yes, coffee. Actually, no. Soda." I said.

Chiron sighed and gave us his keys. "Go look in Mr. D's refrigerator. Now alcoholic drinks. The other keys might help. Now be on your way."

"Thank you," Bianca said.

"Well, good luck," Rachel said.

We left for the other building and went to the main office.

"Ew, smells like wine," I said.

"What's wrong with wine?" Bianca asked.

She looked in Mr. D's mini-fridge and gave us some chilled coffee from Starbucks. She took a bottle of water for herself and handed me a Coke.

"Not a coffee type?" I asked as I downed the whole can.

"Speak for yourself," she said.

"I'm ready," Grover said.

"Let's get going," I said. "Where do we start?"

Bianca thought for a minute. "Percy, when you went to the third floor, were there more staircases leading up?"

"There's a third floor?" Grover asked.

I mentally face palmed. I forgot that I didn't explain this to him. I gave him a brief crash course on what was going on. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it's true."

"Okay," he said. "Strange mutated animals, blood tests, detention… Yeah. Okay. Do go on with the plan."

"I don't think there was another staircase. But then again, I was a bit busy trying to see what was going on," I said.

"And from what thou have explained," Zoë said, "even if there was a fourth floor, the stairway can be hidden. So maybe it's not in plain sight."

I nodded. "Right. But the other building may have more floors too."

"But how will we find it if it's hidden?" Grover asked.

"Well, the third floor for this building was hidden behind those cardboard boxes they use to separate the boy and girl dorms," I said. "I guess they wouldn't have a wall of cardboard boxes for no reason."

"Then let's start at the other building," Zoë suggested. "This… Luke should be cutting off the power lines so there won't be any classes, so students won't be there."

"Plus, everyone will probably waking up pretty late, so we're pretty safe," Bianca added. "The building will be practically empty. Perfect for snooping around."

I caught on to what they were saying. "And most of the security people will be here since most of the students don't even want to go there."

They nodded, and we left back to the other building.

"What if we get caught?" Grover asked nervously.

"Then we say that we're doing an errand for Chiron," I said.

"With weapons?"

"Ah. Good point."

"We can always knock them unconscious," Zoë said. "Like what Annabeth did to thee."

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't need to be reminded of that."

We went up to the second floor. Grover looked out the window.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't the highest we can go," he said. "There _has_ to be another floor. And if you look at it from outside, there's a bunch of windows, and I'm pretty sure they're not there for decoration."

"Rachel said that there's probably three or four floors," I said.

"But that can be wrong," Bianca said. "From what I've seen, the first two floors here are a bit bigger than most other buildings. Maybe if all the floor sizes were equal, then maybe it would be three or four floors. But the top floors can be a bit smaller."

"Why the heck would they design it like that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "This whole school is weird."

"Thou can also see a bit of the two buildings peeking out through the walls," Zoë added.

"So how do the hidden staircases look like?" Grover asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe they have like a fake wall or something."

Grover started feeling around the walls, and Zoë went to check the classrooms.

"I'm going to go check out the music room," Bianca said.

I went downstairs and started looking around for the stairs. I kicked the walls and checked all the classrooms, and even moved a trashcan, but didn't find anything.

"You should be glad there aren't any teachers or anyone here," Grover yelled from above.

I sighed and leaned against the wall next to the stairs. I felt the wall move back slightly and I fell.

I screamed and cursed and everyone came rushing down.

"Language, Percy!" Bianca said.

"Of course you would care about language," I rolled my eyes. "Ew, what the heck is this? It stinks." My hair was covered in it. Luckily I didn't fall face-first.

Grover sniffed it. "Looks like you found the poop hole."

"Gross," I said.

"Very," Bianca agreed. Zoë nodded along with her.

"But where did it come from?" I questioned.

"From above," Grover said. "I'm going to hope that no poop it going to fall down while I go see it that's true."

He grabbed the edge of the wall and poked his head through.

"There's a chute where the poop falls," he said coming back down. "It's pretty big."

"So how will we find the stairs?" I asked.

"Well, they probably put it some distance away from this place, because who wants to smell poop while going up the stairs?" Zoë said.

"Let's check upstairs," Bianca said. "We didn't check the art room."

"And Percy… There's a big sink and some extra clothes in the art room. You might want to wash up your hair and change your shirt," Grover whispered.

"Right," I said.

I quickly did as told and found a fresh green shirt.

"Hey, look what I found," Grover said.

He motioned us to a wall that was peeling. He punched it, and it wobbled.

"So?" I said.

"There's nothing in the back," he said. "You can feel it."

Zoë punched it, and it fell back. "Looks like he's right. Well, we found the staircase. What are we waiting for?"

"Right," I muttered. "Let's get a move on."


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry I didn't update for a while! I have family problems, and it's just getting worse... So I think I'm going to slow down on updates for a while until everything gets a bit calmer. Thank you to everybody who stayed with me so far. :)**

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** I don't know when the next update will be, sadly. I'm really sorry that I'm slowing down on updates before school starts, but the family problems are kind of rough. ****Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Won't they notice that big hole in the middle of their wall?" I asked as we climbed the stairs.

"Rachel will probably figure something out," Zoë said.

"Look, there's the third floor," Grover said.

We peeked out the door and saw a dusty hallway.

"We're going to go check it out," Bianca said. "You guys stay here."

We nodded and stayed in place.

"Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while," I muttered.

As if on cue, there was a clattering sound and a scream.

"Did someone drop something?" I asked. But that sound wasn't the sound of something dropping.

"No," Grover trembled.

Bianca and Zoë ran back out. Then a skeleton emerged from the hallway. It was dressed in the Goode uniform and it was moving. It was looking straight at us with a gun in its hand.

"Tell me that I'm dreaming," Grover gulped.

"Nope," I murmured. "I don't think anyone would like to dream about a skeleton."

The skeleton crept toward us. Its skull made it seem like it was grinning.

"Run," Zoë said. "It will chase us. I don't know how to kill it."

"What?"

They pulled us up the stairs as the skeleton started running.

"Are there more?" I asked.

"Dunno," Bianca said. "We only saw one of the rooms."

"There probably are," Zoë said.

The skeleton shot the gun, missing us by an inch.

"He's going to hit us sooner or later," Grover panted.

We had already ran up two floors, without even seeing what was in them.

"Here!" Zoë yelled. She pushed us onto the seventh floor.

The seventh floor was filled with weapons, but it was different from Chiron's. They were really sharp and looked like it could kill you with a touch. It just had a different feeling.

Zoë tossed us some shields and threw me a coat.

"What?" I said, catching it.

"Wear it," she said. "It was an experiment. It should protect you from the bullets."

I was about to complain about how hot it was, but the skeleton caught up to us. And look, more skeleton buddies. They started shooting and Zoë and Bianca raised their shields.

"You don't know how to kill them?" I asked.

"Our arrows go through their holes," Zoë said.

"Do we run?" Grover asked.

"Where?" I said. We backed up, shoulder to shoulder.

Bianca grabbed a bomb from the shelf and threw it on the ground where the skeleton were. A wall of smoke separated us while blowing up the whole floor.

We barely made it up the stairs to the next floor when it collapsed.

"How are we going to go back down? And did that hurt anybody below?" I asked.

"I don't know," Bianca said. "But we're safe from the skeletons… At least for a while."

"And we have other things to worry about," Zoë said. "Let's see what's here."

"But are you _sure_ we didn't pass by Annabeth?" I said.

"Yes," Zoë sighed, as if thinking, _Stupid boys._ "I took a quick look in the floors we passed by. It didn't seem like a place to have people in."

Bianca looked out the eighth floor window. "Hey, look! It doesn't seem like we have that many floors left!"

We looked outside, and she was right. The sun wasn't up yet, and I craned my neck to see how much higher we had to go.

"One more floor and the roof," Grover guessed.

"What if Annabeth isn't there?" I asked, almost panicking.

"Calm down," Bianca said. "If she's not here, we'll check out the other building."

"Boys and their girlfriends," Zoë muttered.

"She's not my girlfriend," I said.

"You mean, not yet," Grover said.

"Yeah," I said. "Wait, I mean, no. What are you talking about?"

They laughed.

"I'm tired," Grover said. "Let's take a short nap."

"At this time?" I sighed.

"Well, it _is,_" Bianca checked the clock placed on the wall—even though there was no reason for anyone to come up here anyway, "2:25."

I yawned. I hadn't realized how tired I was.

"Some rest it is then," Zoë said.

She moved us to a wider area, though I wasn't sure if it was so we had space to fight or she just wanted to stay away from us boys.

"Nothing's going to attack us, right?" I said drowsily.

"It's quiet," Grover murmured. "A bit too quiet."

I saw Bianca doze off in the corner. Zoë was asleep too, but she looked a bit stiff.

"It's fine," I said. "We'll probably hear them before they attack."

"Sure," he said, a bit doubtfully, but immediately fell asleep.

I looked at all of us. For some reason, I couldn't shake off the feeling that we would all make it back safe and sound. Suddenly, I remembered my promise with Nico, and winced. What if someone had to die? And even worse—what if someone had to die in place of me?

I sighed. It wouldn't do any good to think like this now. I fell asleep.

* * *

"Up, up!" Grover said, shaking me. "We're being attacked."

"What?" I groaned and stood up.

I stretched and saw what was happening.

There were monster carcasses on the floor by the girls' feet. The girls were shooting at some strange looking creatures, some that even looked like that dog.

"Hey, look who's finally awake," Bianca said dryly.

"This way," Zoë said. She slung her bow over her shoulder and opened a random door.

_ "_It's like ten, Percy," Bianca sighed. "We've been defending ourselves for _hours._"

"But you still have arrows," I observed.

"Zoë went to go scout," Grover said. The door shook from the monsters banging on it.

"Yes," she said. "This floor and the next are filled with complete experiments—the ones that were successful. I think this building is where they keep those."

The door kept shaking. The hinges were shaking, and I knew that it would break soon. "It's going to break. It's just a matter of time," Zoë said, as if reading my mind.

"Then what?" I asked.

"The next floor is full of monsters," Zoë said.

"Annabeth probably won't be there. As for the roof, I doubt it," Bianca added.

One of the hinges broke off and a gunshot sounded from outside.

"Oh, no," Grover said. "The skeletons."

Another gunshot sounded and the door burst open. Monsters poured in, being lead by skeletons with their tattered uniforms.

"No weapons," Grover said weakly.

"Percy, you're the only one who can fight them," Bianca said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's true," Zoë said.

"But I don't have a weapon," I lied. My hand crept over to the dagger.

"The pen," Zoë said grimly.

"How's that going to help?" I asked, but the skeleton charged.

I uncapped the pen, and it grew into a bronze sword. The skeletons backed off.

"That's right," I said. "Back off."

I swung the sword, and it snapped in half at the rib. It fell in a pile on the floor.

"Nice!" Grover said.

I ran through the monsters, slashing them with my sword. I was aware of the girls shooting again, but I wasn't worried about them hitting me. They seemed to have pretty good aim, especially Zoë.

"Percy, watch out!" Grover yelled.

I turned around, only to be hit by a bullet in my chest. I fell backwards, but luckily all the other monsters were killed or ran off.

"Ouch," I said rubbing my head.

I saw Bianca pick up the knife that fell out when I fell. She spun it in her hands and stabbed the skeleton that stabbed me. It disintegrated into dust. On the other hand, the other skeleton that was in a pile at the floor reformed.

They started clacking their jaws to each other and fled.

"Percy, you're okay!" Bianca said.

"Of course," Zoë muttered. "The coat protects you."

I looked at the coat. It made me hot, but at least it was somewhat worth it.

"Let's get moving before more get here," Grover said.

We left the room and went up the stairs. Like Zoë said, it was filled with cages of monsters.

"The roof then?" I asked.

They nodded, and we headed up to the roof.

The roof was pretty empty. There was a big table and a computer to the side. Next to it was a big cage, like as in two or three times bigger than me.

"It looks recently opened," Zoë observed. "There's blood."

"But she's not here," I said flatly.

"So we go to the other building," Bianca said.

"But everyone's down there. They'll see us," Grover pointed out.

Sure enough, everyone seemed pretty happy about canceled classes and were playing in the grass down below.

"So?" I shrugged. "_What_ if they see us?"

"Weapons," Zoë rolled her eyes.

"But we can't go down since we wrecked the staircase," Bianca sighed.

"We'll find another way then," I said and headed back down. I was hating my plan already.

"Uh… where are you going?" Grover asked.

"To find a ride," I said. I went to the eighth floor.

The monsters looked at me and shook their cages, no doubt wanting to kill me.

I tried not to look at them as I walked past them.

"You guys coming?" I asked. They nodded and caught up.

"It's like a maze of monster cages," Grover complained.

I wove around two massive snakes and saw two statues of angels in the center of the room.

"These look familiar," Bianca said.

"Oh!" Grover said. "They look like the ones from Hoover Dam!"

"What are the dam angels doing here?" Zoë muttered.

We started snickering, but Zoë didn't seem to understand.

"I want a dam coffee," Grover said.

"I need some dam water," I said.

Bianca just stood there laughing at us while the monsters growled.

Zoë shook her head. "Whatever the case, people rub the toes of these statues at Hoover Dam."

"So what do _we_ do?" I said.

My arm was getting tired of lugging the sword around, and I had no idea how to turn it back into a pen.

Apparently that showed, and Zoë sighed. "There's the pen cap in your pocket. Touch it to the tip of thy sword."

I did what she said, and it worked. "Thanks. But what about these statues? I don't really want to fly with the monsters."

Zoë shrugged. "They might be normal statues."

I heard voices outside. "Are you sure they're here?"

"Yes, where else would they be?"

"Hurry!" I said. "We have to do _something!"_

"So should we rub the toes or something?" Grover said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"It's worth a try," Bianca shrugged and rubbed the toes.

I found myself praying, but I wasn't sure to whom. It would _have_ to work. We might be caught and get killed or something.

"Hey, stay back! You're in cages for a reason!"

"We have to hurry," Zoë urged. "We'll get caught."

"We can always jump out of the windows as a last resort," I gulped.

The footsteps were getting closer, and the bronze angels stretched. "Hey, Hank, look at these people here! Where the heck are we anyway?"

I exchanged looks with the others who seemed about as surprised as I was. "Um, excuse me," I said. "Who are you exactly?"

"I'm Chuck," one of them said in a tinny voice.

"And I'm Hank," the other one said. "The one with the sense of humor."

"Right," Bianca said quickly. "Do you think you can give us a lift to the other building please? We might get in a lot of trouble if we're caught."

"Well, this _is _a restricted area," Hank pointed out.

"But there might be some lady statues in the other building," Chuck said wistfully.

"There are," Zoë said grimly as if disgusted by the statues. "They're still in development, but there are."

"That just makes it even better!" Chuck grinned. "What do you say Hank?"

He shrugged. "Could use a stretch."

They grabbed two of us each and punched through the ceiling.

"There they are!" someone said from below.

I risked a look below and saw Dr. Thorn along with someone else that looked familiar. But I couldn't place the name.

Zoë notched an arrow and aimed at a spot on the roof. It crumbled down on them.

"Nice," Grover said.

"Yes, good aim," Chuck said and winked at her. She gave him a good glare.

"That's the building right?" Hank said. "It looks really familiar."

"Oh, let's get all the statues and have a party!" Chuck said. "We'll drop you off on the roof."

They dropped us off on the roof. Zoë and Bianca had a graceful landing, but Grover and I had a bit of trouble landing.

Grover fell on his butt near the edge of the roof, and I fell on my face which really hurt.

"So we're working out way down then," I said, pretending that nothing happened.

Bianca laughed. "Yeah. Your face is red by the way."

The girls lead the way laughing while my face turned an even brighter shade of red.


	17. Chapter 17

**I finished this chapter sooner than I thought. And school starts in ****like four days. I'm definitely not looking forward to it.**

**percyjackson1234- I'm glad you like it. ^^**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

We heard more voices as we went down the stairs.

"How much longer do you think the girl has?" one of them asked.

"Who knows?" another said. "She's a toughie. But maybe she'll hold out until the end of today or tomorrow dawn."

"If she lasts longer than that, we'll move her to the arena," the third person said and laughed. "We can make some good money off of that."

The first person sighed. "Alright then. Meeting adjourned."

Everyone shuffled around in a hurry to leave.

"So this must be where they have their meetings," Zoë whispered.

"What about the Teachers' Lounge?" Grover frowned.

"I think this is for like meetings where it doesn't concern the school aspect," Bianca clarified.

"This whole floor?" I asked.

We peeked out of the stairway, and yes, it did take up the whole floor.

"That's one big meeting room," I muttered. "I wish _I_ had a room that big."

Bianca punched me. "There's no one in sight. Let's go down."

"But where are the stairs?" Zoë pointed out.

Sure enough, there were no stairs in sight.

"Did they hide them again?" Grover sighed.

"Look, there's a note," Bianca said.

She read it out loud.

"_Percy, Grover, Bianca, and Zo_ë,

_If you have found this note, you're on the right track. Well, you _should've_ found it since you four were hiding behind the stairs a moment ago._

_Anyway, I'm assuming you heard the last bits. I don't know where Annabeth is being held, but she's not in the third or fourth floor. This is the twelfth floor, if you didn't know._

_As you've noticed, the stairs are hidden for each floor. We teachers use the elevator, but I won't recommend that. All the stairs are hidden someplace obvious. For instance, the stairway is underneath the table like a trapdoor._

_Good luck,_

_Chiron"_

"A trapdoor style door, huh," Grover said.

He crawled underneath the table, complaining about the disgusting things teachers did to the table.

"Hey, found it! It's really dusty though," he coughed.

We crawled underneath the table where Grover lifted up a tile to reveal a set of stairs underneath.

"Ladies first," I said.

"You just don't want your face to get cut off," Bianca said, and gave me a teasing smile.

"My face doesn't deserve to be cut off," I smirked.

She rolled her eyes as she went in after Zoë.

The eleventh floor was more of a storage room. There were strange chemicals and explosives everywhere.

"Let's get out of here," Zoë said.

She pushed back a shelf without spilling any chemicals. She pried open a door and went down the stairs.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

Bianca exchanged glances with Grover. "Yeah. She's probably just stressed out or something. I hope we find Annabeth soon. She doesn't sound like she has long."

We went down the stairs to the tenth floor. And great…

"More monsters."

"And these aren't caged," Zoë said.

There _were_ cages, but they were all unlocked. I had a feeling that the monsters came from other rooms too on this floor. I heard the familiar clattering of teeth in the corner.

"They let them out," I guessed.

The monsters didn't seem to be exactly… complete. There was something wrong with them. I mean, sure they all wanted to kill us, but their appearance didn't seem right.

There was a man and bull fusion that had human arms which didn't look right on its bull body. And there was a lion with the tail of a serpent and goat legs, but there were unnatural seams that connected them. Those were only a few examples.

"Get ready to fight," Zoë murmured. She readied her bow.

I uncapped the pen and it turned into a sword. Bianca nocked an arrow and shot it at one of the monsters.

After that, it was mayhem.

The monsters charged, and we tried to fight them off. But they were big and this room was a bit tight for them. There were also those skeletons who shot us every once in a while. I was protected because of my coat, but it wouldn't help it they shot my head or something.

Bianca screamed as one of the monsters threw her against the wall.

"Bianca!" I yelled.

Grover toppled over some cages on the monster.

"Thanks," she said. "Watch out!"

She shot an arrow at a scorpion, killing it.

A skeleton shot a bullet at Zoë, but she quickly dodged it and killed off a monstrous skin-less lion. The skeleton shot again, but I deflected it a second before it could hit her.

"Thank you," she said. She seemed surprised that I had saved her from a bullet.

"Anytime," I said.

I slashed my sword against the lion/snake/goat thing, but its tail came around and bit my ankle.

"Ah!" I screamed, and fell on one knee.

"Percy!" Grover said.

"This is hopeless," Bianca said.

I didn't want to admit it, but she was right. Our clothes were in tatters, and we were covered in scratches and dirt. And the ankle bite was hurting me a lot. My vision was turning blurry.

"We have to do something," Zoë said. She shot arrows at the monsters, keeping them away from us as much as possible.

Bianca bit her lip. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

She ran up the stairs and came back about a minute later with a bomb.

"Bianca, it's not going to work," I said. "They'll probably kick it down the poop chute or something."

I pointed out the other poop chute in the corner of the room.

"I know," she said. She handed me the dagger that I found in my bed. She pressed it in my hand. "And give this to Nico." Tears formed in her eyes and she pulled out a ring with a skull on it. "It's all I have left of our father."

My eyes widened. "Bianca, you're not going to—"

"It's the only way," she said. Tears were streaming out like no end. "You guys, go back up. This room is protected with special walls. It shouldn't blow up the whole building."

Grover stood there with his jaw open, and Zoë had tears welling in her eyes, but they went up.

"Percy, go," she said. "Please."

"But Bianca…" I said. "No, give me the bomb. I'll do it. You go up."

She shook her head. "You have to go find Annabeth." She gave me a hug, which she shouldn't have done with a bomb in hand, but I hugged her back. "Thank you for everything."

She pushed me up the stairs and I saw her go into the middle of the crowd of monsters.

"Perce," Grover said, and pulled me up right before the explosion.

The explosion shook the floor and the chemicals rattled and started falling. Maybe the explosion wouldn't destroy this floor, but the chemicals would.

Grover shoved us down the stairs again and we found the next stairway right on the place that Bianca stood with the bomb. It seemed like a cruel joke. Bianca was nowhere to be seen. I hesitated, but they pulled me down with them.

"Percy, let me see your ankle," Grover said.

Right. My ankle. I had been in so much pain a little while ago, but now I was numb from Bianca's death.

"I should've went," I murmured as Grover treated my ankle. "It should've been me."

Zoë didn't reply. I knew she was close with Bianca. Then I realized she was crying. It shocked me for some reason, seeing her cry.

"Percy, don't say that," Grover said. He seemed to be near tears too. "Annabeth's gone, and if you were gone too…"

"Sorry," I said. "Zoë, are you ready to keep going?"

She wiped her tears ago, but more spilled out. "Yes."

"We can stop for a while is you want," I offered.

"No. Let's keep going," Zoë said.

"Zoë, we can all see that you need some rest. We _all_ need some rest," I said.

"Very well then," she said.

I put slight weight on my ankle. It didn't hurt.

"We're all shocked from her death," Grover said. "Don't blame yourself."

"I promised to keep her safe," I muttered. "I couldn't."

"Don't beat yourself up for that," Grover said. "You might want to go talk to Zoë. I can't imagine how hard it must be for her."

I moved over to Zoë who was sitting on the opposite side of the room. This whole floor was empty, but looked like they had plans for it that they never finished. "You alright?"

Zoë nodded, her eyes red. "She was a nice friend. She was like a sister to me."

"I'm sorry that I let her do that. I shouldn't have let her," I said.

"It was a hopeless fight," Zoë said. "And she is only the first. There will be a second."

"What?"

"It is nothing," she said. "We should get moving."

She helped me up and we found the next staircase in the closet.

"What floor is this?" I asked. "I lost track."

"We're going down to the eighth floor," Grover counted. "Annabeth's not in the third or fourth floor. So she'll be somewhere from here to the fifth floor."

"Let's just do a quick lookover for each floor then. We can't afford to lose any time," I said.

"Yes, it is almost curfew," Zoë said.

"Already?" I asked.

"Time flies," she muttered.

There was nothing interesting on the eighth floor. It reminded me of a hotel. There were many rooms with beds, a closet, and a restroom. And it was much more fancier than our dorm rooms.

We found the stairway after a bit of work—by that, I mean like an hour or more. It was in one of the rooms under the bed. Yeesh. I felt sorry for the unfortunate person who would come up here and bump their head on a bed.

"Let's keep moving," Grover urged, and passed us some food that he had took from the fridge.

"Thanks, man," I said.

We went down to the seventh floor which was just one big room like the twelfth floor. It was just computers, screens, and files. I definitely wasn't interested in it, seeing that I was dyslexic.

"Next floor?" Grover asked.

Zoë nodded and found the next stairway under a box tower of files. "We only have a few more floors left."

We rushed down the stairs. The sixth floor didn't seem very pleasant. It was designed like a cell with big cages like the one on the roof on the other building.

"Here?" I asked.

"A quick lookover. If she's not here, next floor," Grover said.

We split up into the hallways and rooms. Then I heard the screaming and yelling.

"Get away from me you pig!" a girl yelled. She sounded like Annabeth. I ran toward her voice.

"I can't afford to have you spreading false rumors about this place," somebody else said, and there was a _slap_ sound.

"Well, duh. That's why you shoved me in like multiple cages with your prototype monsters and make me do your dirty work!" Annabeth yelled. "For like a month too!"

"You found a way to contact them didn't you?"

"Like I just said, I was in multiple cages. Nobody was there. How could I possibly contact them?" she said. "And you had a 24/7 guard duty on me. Is there no privacy?"

I followed her voice. This floor seemed like a maze. I ended up in different places because of the echoes.

I heard Annabeth cry out. "You'd better watch your mouth girl. Before I feed you to the drakon."

"I hope it'll eat you instead," she spat. "A big fat pig like you should taste pretty good."

There was a _thump_ sound that echoed throughout the floor.

"You should be glad that you're not in a cage anymore," the person snapped. "If you survive this night, well move you somewhere else."

"You're such an idiot, telling me all your plans," she taunted, and there were footsteps signaling the leave of that guy.

I hid behind the cages as the man passed by. It was Dr. Thorn. Great.

"Annabeth!" I called.

"Percy?" her voice was uncertain, like she wasn't sure if I was real or not.

I followed her voice and ended up in a room with a bloody cage. That jarred me, but not as much as the other thing I saw.

Annabeth was standing on the edge of the wall, holding up a broken wall that held up this whole building.


	18. Chapter 18

**PLEASE READ:**

**Oh my gods. I can't even say how much I hate this chapter. It's so... ugh.**

**This is my last update before school starts, so expect slower updates (this is like my billionth time saying that, but whatever).**

**So because of that, I'm going to do something that you guys might hate. I'm going to start writing the next chapter once I get a certain number of reviews. I hate doing this, but at least I have somewhat of an excuse and know that you guys like or hate my story.**

**And I'm going to make a new OC story, except it's a different OC (or at least, the name) that's my character for Demigods of Olympus. And I have a bunch of other story ideas... Okay, well maybe not a _bunch,_ but some. I would collab with Hydra on some of them, but I don't think we'd be that productive. It's been a long time since I did a collab too. I guess it'd be fun to do one with someone, if anyone is interested. XD**

**As for the reviews, let's start small. I'll start writing the next chapter once I get 60 reviews. Not that bad-at least, I think so.**

**Anyway, that's it for my AN.**

* * *

"Percy, is that you?" Annabeth murmured.

She looked awful. Her gray eyes looked like a shattered window. She looked worse than I did. She had gotten new clothes that weren't pajamas, but they were ripped in many places, same with her jeans. She had scratches and bruises all over her body, and her arms were shaking as she held up that wall.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "What happened?"

She gave me a sharp look. Even in this state, she was still capable of giving me those glares. "You really expect me to explain?"

Her knees buckled, and she fell on her knees. The building shook, and she stabled her hold on the wall again.

"How long?" I asked.

"A few hours or so," she said. "I can't let go, or this whole building crumbles."

"What made the wall crumble?" I said. "Was it the explosion?"

"Thorn and that traitor broke it," she said through gritted teeth. "Though the explosion helped."

"Annabeth, I'm—"

"It's okay Percy," she said. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure it was necessary."

"Grover, Zoë!" I called. "She's here!"

They came rushing into the room right away.

"Perce!" Grover said, and looked at Annabeth. "What's going on?"

"Too much to explain," I said. "What do we do? The building's going to crumble down if she lets go."

Annabeth groaned, and I helped her steady the wall.

"Annabeth," I said gently. "I'll hold it."

"No, you can't," she said.

"Yes I can," I said. "And you can't stop me."

I uncapped my pen and cut through the chains at her ankles. I climbed onto the edge of the wall next to Annabeth.

For that moment, we were holding it together. It was heavier than anything that I've ever lifted. I gently pushed her off and Grover caught her. She collapsed.

Now I was holding it on my own. The cold air blasted my back, though the coat still kept me somewhat warm, and the weight was worse than a thousand trucks. It was a wonder how Annabeth managed to hold this for that long.

_I can do this,_ I thought, and stood up a bit straighter.

"We can't leave without anyone holding this up," Grover said.

"Then we'll go look for some things that can steady the wall for a while," Zoë said. "Leave Annabeth here."

Zoë pulled Grover away, and Annabeth slumped on the floor.

"Annabeth, are you okay?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be the one asking that since you're the one holding that up right now," she said. "But yeah, I'm mostly fine."

"Could've fooled me," I said.

The weight was heavier on my shoulders. My ankle started throbbing again.

"Who did you come here with?" she asked.

"Bianca, Zoë, Grover," I muttered.

"Where's Bianca?" she asked.

The guilt of her death washed over me again. "She died in the explosion."

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"It's not your fault," I said. "She volunteered."

"Still," she said.

"It's my fault," I said.

"No it's not," she said. She stood up. "If only I hadn't put those notes in the books. If only I had told you everything. If only I wasn't taken away, she'd still be alive."

"I'm worried about Nico too," I said. "When he finds out…"

"Let's not talk about that right now," she said. "Let's talk about happy things."

She gave me a smile, and despite my situation right now, a smile grew on my face. For that second, all the weight on my shoulders disappeared.

"Ah, yes. Happy times, huh?" a voice said.

Annabeth yelped, and Luke put his sword at her throat.

"Luke," I muttered.

"I see you've took Annabeth's job," he frowned. "That wasn't part of the plan, but I guess we'll have to improvise."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Did you still not figure it out yet?"

"You're the traitor," I said. My vision was red, but I wasn't sure if it was from the anger or the pain.

"Bravo," he said. "Well, to be exact, I'm not exactly a traitor since I never really was on your side, if there are sides."

My shoulders ached. If they could scream, I bet they would produce a scream that could be heard by everyone in the world.

"What's your point?" I asked. I hoped that the others would hear what was going on.

"That's obvious, isn't it?" Luke shrugged and pointed his sword at me. He shoved Annabeth to the side, and she hit her head against the cage. "I'm going to kill you."

* * *

"So you're going to be like _that_ then?" I said. "A coward."

Luke scowled. "I'm not a coward."

"Really, killing a defenseless person like that," I said.

Luke hit my stomach with the flat of his sword, and I groaned. I fell on my knees and the building shook.

"Luke, stop," Annabeth said, gaining consciousness.

"Be quiet, Annabeth," he snapped, and she gave him a dirty look.

"What is going on _now?_" Zoë sighed, rushing in. She saw Luke and raised her bow.

"Lower your weapon," Luke said. He slashed with his sword and cut her bow in half. "And look, if it isn't Grover."

Annabeth turned her eyes on me while Luke was occupied with the visitors. She mouthed, _Do you have a weapon?_

I nodded, and carefully took one arm off of the wall. I winced at the pain. I grabbed the knife and tossed it toward Annabeth. It made a clattering sound on the floor, and Luke whirled around.

Annabeth pressed her dagger against his throat. "Surrender, Luke."

He smiled. "Never."

He swung with his sword, and Annabeth backed up. She parried all of his strikes somehow, but she was growing tired quickly.

"Percy, thou ready?" Zoë asked.

"For what?" I said.

"Thou are going to let go," she said.

"Are you crazy?" I hissed. "It's going to kill us all!"

Grover shook his head. "We made some adjustments while you were talking with Luke, so if you let go, it's going to fall toward there. It's probably going to break the wall and fall on the streets. Hopefully the bottom floors will be safe."

I nodded, and took a look at how Annabeth was doing. She had many chances to stab him, but she didn't. I guess her crush on him was still going strong, besides him being a traitor. I noticed tears streaming out of her eyes.

"On three," Grover said.

"One."

"Two."

"Three," I breathed, and let go.

* * *

The building immediately toppled to one side. Annabeth screamed as she lost her footing, and grabbed the nearest thing to balance herself—which happened to be me.

Like Grover said, the building fell onto its side and broke through the wall. I heard cars honking, and pedestrians screaming.

My head bounced on the pavement.

"Percy, get up right now," Zoë said. "We have no time for your romantics."

I realized that Annabeth was still grabbing onto me and blushed. I helped her up.

After being in the school for so long, the look of the city surprised me. All the buildings and cars and the noise.

"You don't know how much trouble you're going to get into," Luke said.

"Why are you worried about that?" I said, crossing my arms. "You're the one who always sneaks outside."

"I wasn't talking about that kind of trouble, but I guess that too," he nodded.

"Luke, you wouldn't dare," Annabeth said. Her grip on the knife tightened.

"You don't know me, Annabeth," he said.

Annabeth flinched and Luke retrieved his sword from the rubble.

"Percy, you said that I was a coward?" he said. "Well, you're able to defend yourself now. Let's see who's better. You or me."

I took off my coat. "You're on."

I uncapped my pen and Luke charged. He slashed with his sword, cutting my arm. I tried to take a strike at him, but he deflected my sword easily. I wondered if he had training elsewhere, but that was crazy. We weren't allowed outside.

He took another strike at me again, but this time I parried. I started getting used to his style now, but he was still better than me, and I was losing my energy quickly. Luke on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine.

"You know you're going to lose," he chuckled. "Just give up."

"No. Never," I said, but he disarmed me. My sword flew out into the streets where the cars ran over it.

He whapped my knees with the flat of his sword, and I stumbled. He raised his sword, ready for the kill.

"No!"

Zoë rushed in and took the strike instead. She gasped and fell on the ground. Luke kicked her away.

"Zoë!" I said.

I pushed Luke away and knelt at her side. The police came just then.

"Weapons down!" one of them yelled.

Annabeth cleverly hid her dagger somewhere, and mine was out in the streets.

"Zoë, are you alright?" I asked, but I knew that she wasn't.

The fall from the building hurt her more than I thought. Her forehead was cut open, and her head was bleeding. If you add Luke's deadly strike to it… she looked pretty bad.

"Wait, maybe I can do some quick healing," Grover said while the police were talking with Luke.

Zoë grabbed his wrist. "No. I can't be saved. I know that much."

"Zoë you're not going to die," I said.

"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "You survived all that."

She shook her head. "I knew this would happen."

"What?" I said.

"It's true," Grover mumbled. "Before you came, Rachel told us that two of us would die as a price."

"What price?" I said angrily.

"For not following the future," Zoë answered calmly. I wondered how she could be that calm at the brink of death.

"But that's not our fault!" I said.

"The fates aren't fair," Zoë said. "We didn't know who would die, but turns out that it was me and Bianca."

"Zoë, just hang on," Annabeth said. "We'll get someone to call the ambulance."

"I'm perfectly fine with dying," she said, and grasped her hand. "My wish was to come back to the outside world again. And now I have. Perhaps not in the way I would've wished, but it's still outside." She coughed. "At least I'm dying here."

I wiped away some tears, and Annabeth let out a sob.

"I guess I was wrong on some things," she said. "I thought that all boys were all arrogant and cocky. Now I know that all of them are not all bad." She gave me a smile and turned to Annabeth. "Don't worry. Everything will turn out just fine."

She gasped for air.

"Zoë, stay still," Grover said.

"I'm dying anyway," she said. "Just promise me something."

"Sure," Annabeth and I said.

"Save everyone in this school and wreck their plans, whatever they are," she said.

We nodded, and she gave us one last smile before she took her final breath.

"There they are!" Mrs. Dodds said, and waddled over to us. Surprisingly Mr. D was with her along with a few other teachers.

"You should take better care of your students," one of the police said. "Look at what they caused."

"They're true criminals I tell you! Criminals!" a lady shouted.

"This boy is cleared," the officer said, motioning to Luke. "But you have to do something about the other criminals."

I stood up and walked over to them. Grover tried to stop him, but I shrugged him off. "We're not criminals," I said quietly. "None of the students here are true criminals. Some of them have been framed. We're misunderstood people. Not criminals."

"Oh, I know you! Perseus Jackson," he said.

"I don't care if you know me or not," I said, stepping closer. "You don't even know what's going on in the school. You might think it's a school for criminals, but it's not. You should see what they're doing behind their name."

"No wonder you're here," the officer sneered. "An arrogant little boy that disobeys everything, not caring about the trouble he causes. Your stepfather was right."

I only recognized him then. He was one of the people Smelly Gabe had invited once to his poker parties. I hated him the moment I saw him.

"Well, you don't deserve to be a police," I said. "That boy you just let go? He killed a student here. He killed her, and he doesn't even care!"

"You have no right to be saying that," he sneered. "And a criminal killing a criminal. What's so bad about it? You criminals are one and the same."

My vision turned red again, but this time from anger. I drew back a fist and punched him in the face.

"Perseus Jackson!" Mr. D barked. "Get back here right now."

I didn't listen to him, but Chiron came and separated me from the officer. I was still seething.

"Now, Perry Johansson," Mr. D said. "Are you aware of what you just did?"

"Yeah, I just punched an officer in the face and he's spouting curses at me. I totally don't know what I just did," I said sarcastically.

"Office, now," he snapped.

"Mr. D, it's way past curfew," Chiron said. "Tomorrow's Saturday. Why don't you have him come by then?"

He scowled. "Fine. Everybody, back to the school!"

He herded us back, not even bothering to look at Zoë.

"Percy, I'm sorry I got you into all this trouble," Annabeth said.

"It's fine," I said.

"But thank you for coming to save me," she said, not meeting my eyes.

"Anytime, wise girl. Anytime."


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay, so I updated sooner that I thought because I got more reviews than I thought. O.O But really, thanks for reviewing, and I'm really glad that you like it! **

**So yes, today was the first day of school, and it was _awful._ Especially since the new computer system messed up our schedules so I have this weird science teacher for my homeroom. O.O And I just hate school, so yeah.**

**I also updated my profile (somewhat) if you want to go take a look. I have things like notes on my active stories and whatnot.**

**Jessica Jasso- I'm glad that you like this story! ^^  
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**misskicksbutt13 (Guest)- Ahahaha. Thanks, I guess.  
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**A regular demigod- Sometimes it's hard to think of ways to make it follow the PJO series, but it's fun. ^^ I'm glad you liked it.  
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**Justanordinaryviewer- Thanks!  
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**hermes child awesomness- Thanks~  
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**HuntressJadeDaughterOfPosedion- Thanks, I hope you like this chapter too.  
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**Since I got like 6 reviews for the last chapter, I hope it's okay if I raise the review number. 70 reviews until I start writing the next chapter.**

* * *

I went up to my room, only to find Nico sitting at the edge of my bed. "Hey, isn't it time for you to go to bed?"

He shrugged, and I could feel the tension rolling off of him. "Where's Bianca?"

I flinched. "You stayed up just for me to answer that? How'd you get in anyway?"

Nico held up a bobby pin. "Stole it from Bianca. Is she okay?"

I swallowed. "Nico, I'm sorry. She gave her life for us so we could go on."

Anger flashed in his eyes. His eyes seemed to harden and looked like black despite the moonlight streaming in through the window.

"You promised you would protect her," he said.

"Nico, I tried, but—"

"You promised!" he yelled.

I heard footsteps in the hallway, making their way toward my room. "Later," I said.

I shoved him into my messy closet and slammed it shut when Mr. Lane came in.

"What's going on here? Students are trying to sleep!" he said.

"Sorry," I said with a fake smile. "And last I recall, you were a teacher, not a student. So you wouldn't know."

His face turned red and slammed my door. I waited for a few seconds, and Nico shoved the closet open, and I fell face-flat on the floor.

"I trusted you!" he said. "I shouldn't have! My visions were right."

"I told you. She wouldn't let me!" I said. My blood turned cold. "Wait, did you get a blood test?"

"Why do you care?" he gripped his left forearm.

"You did, didn't you?" I said. "Nico, tell me—"

He shoved past me and went to his room. He was stronger than he looked.

I sighed and closed my door. I brushed my teeth, but I was too tired to do anything else. I least I was still in my pajamas.

It seemed so long ago when we started searching the school. I couldn't believe that we had only left yesterday. I fell asleep.

* * *

I woke up the next day with Dr. Thorn in my room.

"Can I get some privacy?" I muttered and rolled around in my sheets. "I'll go to the office later."

"Up. Now, Jackson," he said.

I suppressed a smile to hear that he still had his strange French accent.

"Up. I'm up," I said.

I got up and was about to change, but he grabbed me back the scruff of my neck and led me to the office.

* * *

"Hello, Peter Johnson. Still in your pajamas, I see," Mr. D said. He wrinkled his nose. "Your pajamas from _yesterday._"

"I would've changed, but _someone_ didn't give me the chance," I said, glaring at Dr. Thorn. He kicked my shin.

"You can go now," Mr. D said. "Pedro, sit."

I rolled my eyes and sat down. Dr. Thorn left the office.

"Now, from what I've heard—" Mr. D started.

"What you've heard is probably wrong," I said.

"As I was saying," he continued, as if I hadn't spoken at all, "You caused an explosion in the secondary building and wrecked the top part of this main building, along with part of the wall that separates you from all of humanity."

"Because we aren't human," I muttered.

"What was that?"

"How would you know that we caused an explosion in the secondary building?" I said. "There's only two floors, after all."

I smirked, and Mr. D seemed to be at a loss for words.

"You know what I'm talking about, Peter!" he roared. "Don't test my patience."

"Already done _that_ enough times," I said, referring the few times I was called in.

I sat back and watched his face turn into darker shades of red.

"Good morning, Mr. D. Sorry that I'm a bit late," Chiron said, coming in the door. "I was busy comforting a student. And, good morning to you too, Percy."

"Good morning, sir," I said politely.

I stifled a laugh at Mr. D's outraged face.

"Ah, and Mr. D," Chiron continued. "One of our sponsors—I don't know which, but I'm hoping for Dare Enterprises, honestly—are going to be coming in on Monday. Also, I think it is pretty reasonable to listen to Percy's side of the story as well."

He wheeled himself into his small office that was connected to this one.

Mr. D scowled. "Blah, blah, blah."

He wrote down some notes. "Well, are you going to start?"

"Sorry?"

"Start explaining, you doofus," he said. "I don't have all day!"

I gulped and started telling him what happened, leaving a few things out, just in case.

"Oookay," he said. "It's clear to me that you're the one at fault, Peeta."

My jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

"Are you hard of hearing?" he said. "So Thorn will be fired. I never really liked him anyway. Chiron!"

"Yes, what is it, Mr. D?" Chiron sighed.

"Do you think that Tantalus fellow will be a good staff member here?"

"No," he answered honestly.

"Okay! Call up that guy and tell him to come here tomorrow for an interview," Mr. D said. "As for _you_ Jansen, detention for a month!"

My jaw dropped even further.

"Mr. D. Perhaps that's a bit too much," Chiron said.

"Ha! He won't even feel a thing!" Mr. D cackled.

"You're supposed to be protecting the students," Chiron reminded. "Your boss won't be happy."

Mr. D paled. I wonder who his boss was. He must've been scary since Mr. D looked scared out of his wits.

"Two weeks then," he said. "Nothing more, nothing less. We'll come get you whenever you're free. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," I said weakly.

"Then leave! Get out of my sight!"

* * *

I rolled my eyes and exited, only to bump into Annabeth. She'd cleaned up nicely after all the things that happened.

"Trouble?" she asked.

"Detention for two weeks," I said, going back up to my room. Surprisingly, Annabeth kept following. "Aren't you worried that you'll get caught?"

"That's the least I can worry about," she said.

I checked my mailbox for any mail, and found an envelope that looked pretty high-quality.

"Who's it from?" Annabeth asked, entering my room.

I shrugged and opened it.

_Dear Percy,_

_ I know that you might hate me, and that's perfectly fine and understandable. If you didn't figure it out already, I'm your father._

I bit my tongue to hold back a snarky comment.

_Your mom is safe. Don't worry. She's at my place, and no, my wife is not being jealous. Gabe doesn't know me, so she should be relatively safe._

_As for your school, I'm sure you already know that it's not a regular school. You've caused a lot of trouble last night._

I rolled my eyes. Did my dad, whoever he was, watch the news 24/7?

_I'm trying to bribe the school, sorry—filling out forms to let you leave. Of course, it's not working, but oh well. _

_Always be armed, wherever you go. Don't trust anyone there. Well, maybe except for Chiron. He's a good person. And I'm sorry about your two late friends. _

_Your mom told me about your "good friend," Annabeth. Annabeth Chase, right? I've heard of her a lot. Athena's pride and joy. She's really concerned, but she can't go see her. One, because she's at that god-awful school, and two, Zeus doesn't let us see our children, fearing that it'll be a "distraction to our work." He's such a party pooper._

_You might have noticed that there's no return address. That was for you and your mom's own safety. The school could've recognized the address. Don't try to contact me. Stay safe son._

_Sincerely,_

_Poseidon Atlantis_

I scowled and threw the letter on my table where it landed next to Gabe's letter.

"So your dad is one of the Olympians, huh?" Annabeth said crossing her arms.

"I guess?" I said. The name seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

She rolled her eyes. "The famous marine biologist that owns many aquariums across the country?"

"Oh, right," I said. "Didn't he write an article about saving dolphins?"

She nodded. "Now don't get your ego to big just because your dad is Poseidon, Seaweed Brain."

I arched an eyebrow, but she didn't waver. "Go change," she ordered. "Your clothes are all torn."

"Yes, ma'am!" I said, doing a mock salute.

Annabeth smiled, and I smiled back, glad that I boosted her mood. I grabbed some clothes and went to the restroom.

* * *

When I came out, Annabeth was reading my letters.

"Hey!" I protested.

She put a finger on my lips to sush me. "No secrets, right?"

"Uh…" I said, trying to remember the time when I said that.

"No secrets between friends," she sighed.

"Well, you didn't tell me much about your family either," I said.

She crossed her arms again. "Fine, my dad is a history professor at West Point. He married another woman after I was born, and had two boys with her. And according to your letter right here," she said, waving my letter from Poseidon, "my mother is Athena."

"An Olympian?" I said.

She nodded. "Athena Parthenos, but sometimes she goes by Pallas."

Someone knocked on the door.

"Jackson, get out right now," Mr. Graz said. "Detention."

I was about to open the door, but Annabeth stopped me. "Are you really going to give in that easily?"

"What?"

She smirked. "Was your rebellious attitude just a front? What happened to the person that always did dangerous things without caring about the risks?"

I hesitated. "I—"

"When did you become such an obedient softie, Jackson?" she said.

"Are you saying that I'm not capable?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said, the smirk not coming off her face. "Maybe it's being implied."

I grinned. "You're on, Wise Girl."

She smiled. "Bring it on, Seaweed Brain."

"Open the door and come out peacefully!" Mr. Graz yelled.

Annabeth stepped to the window. The building had toppled over in that direction, so the window showed a beautiful view of a building wall with broken windows.

She opened the window and jumped out. There was a soft _poof_ on the ground, and Annabeth stood there, beckoning to me.

It didn't seem safe, but then again, what was the fun if it was safe? I jumped out as Mr. Graz said, "I'm going to break your door down!"

Oh, how disappointed he will be.

* * *

I fell on a huge pile of soft moss.

"Nice," I said, patting the moss around me. "So what are we gonna do?"

"We're going to go over to the library," she answered, as if that was obvious. "I still haven't figured out who Daedalus is! I saw him a few times when I was taken."

"Oh," I said. "But are you doing this because you think I'm the one that Rachel was talking about."

She nodded stiffly.

"But what if I'm not?" I said. "Why do you think I'm the one?"

"Instincts," she said. "And ever since you came, things became different. A mass of students were enrolled, soon after you were. I've figured out things that I never would've known before. And I don't think that's a coincidence. Do you?"

I didn't answer. She was right. It was too big for it to be a coincidence.

We moved past the broken building, and I saw Zoë's body still lying on the street. People simply moved around her.

"Wait," I said.

I walked over and gently lifted her. I was angry that they didn't even have the decency to bury her or move her.

Annabeth studied me, as if seeing what I would do.

"There's a garden that Bianca told me about. Almost no one goes there," I ventured.

"Alright then," Annabeth said. "Lead the way."

I followed Bianca's directions, sticking to the wall behind the secondary building. Sure enough, it opened up into a big garden.

The garden was beautiful. There were a variety of flowers, all planted to accompany each other nicely. There were even fat clumps of grapes growing here and there.

I laid Zoë in the flowers. A gentle breeze swept by, spreading the smell of flowers.

I didn't even know that I was crying until Annabeth reached out and wiped them away for me.

"Come on, Percy," she said quietly. "Let's go."

She slipped her hand in mine, but I didn't feel embarrassed. I was just glad to know that there was someone that cared about me nearby, and that she was alive.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey~ School's really awful, and I already have a test on Tuesday. Bleh. And I haven't reached 70 reviews which is kind of a disappointment, but whatever. It's Percy's birthday today, and I didn't have time to write a oneshot like I was planning, so here's the next chapter!  
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**hermes child awesomness- I live in California, and it's so freaking hot every single dam day. XD  
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**Lonely diamond in the sky- Percabeth = OTP! :)  
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**Burned Blue Cookie- I loved them even before they were together. It made things a bit more interesting. ^^  
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**HuntressJadeDaughterOfPosedion- Yup. ;) There's a bit more in this chapter too.  
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**I just finished my one page essay of Archimedes (I chose to write about him for science class because of Leo. XD), and it turns out that my freaking printer doesn't work. Schist.  
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**Was 70 reviews too much? How about 73 reviews until I start writing?**

* * *

I let myself be dragged to the library. We passed by the empty art room which was a whole mess—messier than usual.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, and peeked into the doorway.

Paints were splattered on walls, chunks of clay were thrown everywhere, and the tables were overturned. Then I saw the worst thing.

I picked up the painting of me and the di Angelo siblings laughing under the tree. It was ripped in pieces, and my face was scratched out.

"Oh," I said softly.

"He wasn't very subtle about it either," Annabeth said and held up a skull ring on the ground.

"Nico," I said.

Annabeth nodded. "Which is why we have to work even harder."

She continued walking to the library.

"Daedalus," she mused. "Who could he possibly be?"

"My mom said that he was a famous genius that worked for Olympus," I recalled. "Then he moved to the Labyrinth, but something happened. The letter got cut off after that."

Annabeth snapped her fingers. "That's it! Percy, your mom is a genius! Why couldn't you get some of her brain?"

"Uh…"

She made her way over to the section about businesses. She looked through the titles and pulled out a book.

"Read this," she said, and shoved it into my arms and ran off to find something else.

"Nice you wanted me to help," I muttered.

I sat at a table and started reading. My dyslexia was messing with me again, but I kept trying. I started reading about Athena's department which sounded like a place where a genius would work.

I was reading for about an hour about the education section and her most famous work—architecture. It seemed interesting, but not where Daedalus would work at. Maybe the chemistry section? Did Athena even have a lab?

"Here," Annabeth said, slamming down a newspaper in front of me.

"What?" I said, staring at the newspaper and back at her face.

"It took me a lot of trouble to find these, okay?" she said. "This dates back to a bit before we were born. Apparently Olympus made this breakthrough discovery. Here's the staff."

She pointed specifically at a name in the middle. Quintus Ezam.

"And look," she said, following his name to his department. It said _Lab._ "It's Daedalus."

She got my book and flipped through the pages. She got to the lab section.

"It says that he was a great inventor," she said. "He created many great things, but felt like he was a threat and fired him. So he created another company called the Labyrinth, but of course, Olympus bought it."

"Go on," I said.

"That's it," she said, closing the book. "Let's go look at the newspapers. Like I said, it took me a lot of effort to get access to these. Come on."

She went to the reading corner of the library and ran her hands across the wall and kicked it. It swung open like a door.

"I'm not supposed to know about these," she said as we stepped in. "But Luke helped me find it."

Her voice trembled a little at Luke.

It was a small room with a reading light and a box of newspapers. She closed the door behind me. She started looking through the newspapers, muttering and tossing them aside.

I felt awkward together with Annabeth. Normally it was fine, but this was a tight space, obviously meant for one person at a time. And now that I think about it, Annabeth was the only girl that I liked and who also liked me back, aside from Bianca and Rachel.

"Here," she said, and spread the newspaper on the table. Our bodies were touching now, and I could've sworn I saw Annabeth's face turn slightly red. "Says here that Othrys bought the Labyrinth. Wait, let me read it first."

Her eyes moved across the words quickly. I couldn't help but admire her reading skills, even though she was dyslexic.

"Okay," she said. "So Othrys bought the company right? Daedalus wasn't very happy about that. They didn't give him much freedom, literally. They locked him up in their company building with his son, Icarus. They tried to escape multiple times, but failed. Then Minos became the boss of the Labyrinth. He made Daedalus do his work, and thus they made all those amazing things."

"So how does that end up with him being here?" I asked.

"I have a guess, but I'll have to check," she said and started digging through the news again.

This time, she was a bit faster. She showed me a newspaper with the heading _Daedalus, the Great Inventor, Disappears._

I started reading it, but Annabeth said, "He disappeared around the same time this school was founded. Interesting, don't you think?"

"Sure," I shrugged. "So what does that give us?"

"He doesn't like working here," she said. "But we can't confront him just yet. I think the staff here is starting to pick on. Maybe Luke told them? I don't know."

She sounded so frustrated and bitter, that I couldn't help but go over and hug her.

"What—"

"I'm giving you a hug," I said. "I feel as bad as you. Two girls died because of me. Your reason is different from mine, but I guess you're heartbroken." _Especially since you have a crush on Luke,_ I wanted to add. "How about we give it a rest for the day? Sound good?"

She nodded. "Sounds good."

We walked out of the room and put back the books.

"There he is!" Mr. Graz pointed.

"Please refrain from yelling in the library please," the librarian said absently.

I cursed. "I forgot."

"The windows are too far," Annabeth said.

I saw her tense up, as if expecting a fight. "Annabeth, its fine. I don't want you getting hurt," I said. "I'll just go to detention. See you later, hopefully."

Her eyes widened, but I went up to Mr. Graz, and he led the way.

* * *

"Don't protest," he said, and shoved me up the stairs.

So naturally, I had to trip while coming into detention. He had already closed off the entrance with cardboard boxes.

My legs were trembling, and I felt sick. I haven't felt like this in a long time. The last time was when I first joined the gang. Other than that, it was when Gabe started beating me. I was too scared to come home.

I felt the same now, only much worse. Blood was pumping in my ears, my heart beating rapidly. I gulped and forced myself to go in the room.

"Hello, you must be Perseus Jackson," Daedalus said, looking at a file. "Sit."

He motioned at the chair that Nancy had sat on.

"Thanks, but no thanks," I said. "I'll stand."

He shrugged. "If that's what you want."

He put down the file on a table and filled up a syringe.

"Oh, no," I said. "Not that."

He ignored me and came towards me with the syringe in hand. There was green liquid in it. I backed up, but he maneuvered around me, so that I was backing up back into the room.

"Please, sit," he said, and shoved me into the seat.

I tried to get up, but cold metal things popped up and pinned me to place. I kept struggling, but the grip got tighter.

"Stay still," he said, and injected the syringe.

I understood how Nancy felt now. I still felt the metal grip, but my mind fell in like a dream-like state.

I was back at home, but something was different. I was eight years old. I was in my room. Why? I had no idea.

I opened the door slowly on habit, and crept out, only to be exposed to loud yelling and cursing.

"Hey, Gabe! Looks like your little son came for a visit!" one of his friends said.

Then it all came to me. Gabe was having a poker party. My mom had specifically told me, "Don't come out until I tell you to. Okay, Percy?"

"You runt," he snapped.

The next thing I knew, I was getting beaten up by Gabe and his buddies. My mom had tried to help, but Gabe locked her in her room.

"Maybe he wanted of taste of this," one of them said. I could smell his stinky breath from on the floor.

I was bleeding, and my head was all fuzzy. I didn't know what I was seeing.

"Pass me the bottle," Gabe ordered.

Bottle? What bottle? Like a water bottle?

He shoved something in my mouth, and liquid poured out. It kept pouring out, and I couldn't help but swallow. It tasted awful, and made my mind even fuzzier. Only later I found out that it was alcohol.

I tried to get the bottle out of my mouth, but Gabe held it in place and punched my stomach. I retched, and he took the bottle out. I spewed the liquid in his face which was a small victory for me. But that was nothing compared to what he was going to do.

Then I woke up.

"So you've survived," he mused, writing down some notes.

"Well, of course I survived!" I said, but I felt different. More… how to say it… agile? antsy?

"You were squirming and moving around a lot more than you usually do," he noted. "That's it for this detention. You've wasted three hours in here."

My jaw dropped. "What did you inject in me?"

"Do you really think I will tell you?" he said. I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off. "Maybe sometime later. Get going, Perseus Jackson."

I gave him a strange look, and tried to read him, but he was a closed book. I sighed and went down the stairs.

"Perrrccccyyy!" Grover brayed. "Annabeth told me! Are you okay?"

Grover was wearing nice clothes today, and he had a lipstick mark on his cheek, presumably from Juniper.

"Yeah, I think," I said. "I'm a bit dizzy."

"You missed lunch," Grover said. "You hungry?"

I shook my head. "I think I'll go take a nap or something. I don't feel too good."

Grover gave me a worried look. "I'll go back with you."

"Nah. I'm fine. Have fun with Juniper," I said, and walked back to my room.

* * *

"So you're back," Daedalus said.

"Not like I had a choice," I grumbled.

He ignored me again. "So how to you feel?"

"Awful."

"As expected," he said. "You're different from others, so we'll have to be a bit different."

He stepped over to his table and filled his syringe again. This time it was a different liquid.

"Give me your arm," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"You already know," he said, and grabbed my arm.

He injected the syringe in my wrist, and I gasped.

The world suddenly sharpened in color. My mind drifted off elsewhere. I saw an ocean, and I could smell the salt and hear the waves. Then it was gone, as soon as it came.

"How do you feel?" Daedalus asked.

"Light-headed," I murmured.

"And…?" he pressed.

"Thirsty," I said.

He tossed me a bottle of water. I gulped it down, but I still felt thirsty. I kept drinking, but it didn't quench my thirst.

"More," I pleaded.

"Oh dear," he said, and handed me another bottle. He wrote down some notes.

I downed five bottles, but I just kept getting thirstier with each drink.

"This is bad," Daedalus said. "Looks like that was wrong. It makes you thirsty for water instead. You're drying up too."

I looked at my hands, and saw that he was right. My arms were dry, and I probably looked really bad.

"One of the sponsors are coming tomorrow, so we can't have a session then," he said. He grabbed a canteen. "I don't know if this'll help, but I think I've got it just right."

"Is it that thing that tastes really bad with healing qualities?" I croaked.

"Yes, but I think it should be okay," he said. "Drink."

I grabbed the canteen and chugged it down. It tasted like my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies. A pleasant feeling tingled in my stomach.

Then that pleasant feeling was replaced by flaring pain. I groaned, and Daedalus got a syringe and quickly took some blood out of my arm.

I immediately felt better, and Daedalus was writing more notes down. Did he write down notes all day? Doesn't his hand hurt?

"I feel quenched now," I said, amazed.

"Yes," he said. "But it won't stay like that for long. I think that you'll burn up if you drink too much. You were smoking."

He didn't seem to be joking.

"Here," he said, handing me the canteen. "Take a sip whenever you feel dried up. Never drink too much."

"Right," I said, taking the canteen.

"And don't let anyone else drink it," he warned. "It only works on certain people."

"How did you know that I was one of the 'certain people?'" I asked.

"Well, you're the one everyone's talking about," he said. "You're not the only one out there though. Now leave. Tomorrow's a busy day."

"Right, classes," I muttered. "I have homework to do."

"Classes are canceled," he said. "The school's trying to impress the sponsor and try to get some help. As long as you're careful, it's a great time to be snooping around." The corner of his mouth came up in a small smile. "Not that I said anything."

I stood straighter. "I'll be going now, sir."

"Right, you'd better get going," he said, and waved me off.

I came down the stairs, and I should've been scowling. I mean, who wants to be at risk of drying up completely?

But instead, I was smiling. I couldn't wait to tell Annabeth. Tomorrow would be a good day.


	21. Chapter 21

**Again, I didn't get 73 reviews, but I had some free time. I guess I'll lower the review number for this chapter.**

**This story is almost as popular if not more than the Son of the Sea and the Eye of Horus Meet Again for page views. This story also has more reviews and follows, but it's lacking a bit in favorites. **

**I'm also rewriting my OC story, the New Storm. Please, please go check it out. I'll try to not mess this one up.  
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**75 reviews for the next chapter****(really, this is only like three more reviews).**

***No replies to reviews this time since I'm so tired right now. Sorry.***

* * *

I wandered around the school looking for Annabeth, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead, I found Rachel.

"Hey," she smiled. "Heard you got yourself into detention!"

"You say it like it's a good thing," I joked.

"No but really. How was it?" she asked.

"Awful," I said. "I got injected with this thing that gets me dehydrated really quickly."

"Ah, that explains it," she said. She didn't bother explaining _what_ though.

"Have you seen Annabeth?" I asked.

She frowned. "No. She might be in her room. She wasn't in the library. Or maybe she's showing a newbie around."

"There's a new student?"

Rachel shrugged. "We have them so often now, so why not?"

"Oh."

I felt myself getting dry and immediately took a sip of the drink.

"For instance, take Jason Grace," she said. "He came about two weeks after you. Then there's Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, who came last month. There's also Octavian who came in recently." She made a face. "He's a big troublemaker. You'd probably want to avoid him."

I nodded. "If you see Annabeth, well…"

"I'll tell her to come by," she smiled.

Right then, the announcement came on. I never knew they even _had_ one. "Perseus Jackson, to the office please. I repeat—"

"You don't need to repeat!" Mr. D shrieked. "If he didn't hear it the first time, then that's his problem!"

The announcement ended.

"Geez. Temperamental much?" I said.

Rachel shook her head, hiding a smile. "You'd better go. I'll see you later."

"Later," I said, and made my way over to the office.

"Pedro, explain this," Mr. D said and tossed a bottle of drugs on the table.

"It's a bottle of drugs," I said.

"Well, no duh!" he said.

I noticed that there was a guy that looked like a surfer standing in the corner of the room.

"What do you want me to explain then? I can't explain any more than that!" I said.

"Argus, give me the letter," Mr. D sighed.

The guy grunted and passed him a note. Mr. D slammed it in front of me.

"Read."

"_Dear punk, You left this at your house,"_ I read. "It's from my stepdad. So what?"

"You were trying to get him to send you drugs!" Mr. D accused.

"I was not!" I protested. "I didn't even _talk _to him!"

"No, Mr. D! It was me!" Grover said and burst in the room.

"Grover?" I said. "What?"

"Explain yourself," Mr. D said. "Not that I care."

"I was trying to get him in trouble," he said. His voice quivered. "I got that bottle of drugs from Luke, and I pretended like I was Percy's stepdad to get him in trouble."

I shook my head when Grover looked at me. _Why?_ I mouthed.

"Detention for you Mr. Underwood," he said. "Four days."

"Y-yes sir."

"Both of you can leave," he said.

We left, and I looked at Grover.

"Why did you do that?" I demanded. "You didn't have to lie for me!"

"It was for your own good," Grover said. "That would've got you in serious trouble, and you don't know what happens to those who got in that much trouble!"

"What happened?" I asked. "Did you find out anything?"

"Kinda," Grover said. "But not here. Let's go to your room."

We passed by Nico on the way and he shot me a murderous glare. I winced and went to my room.

"So what happened?" I said.

"Well, I was working on our environmental project on the library computer," Grover said. "So we can get it out to the rest of the world, you know? But I'm really bad with computers, and I must've clicked something wrong. This diagram or blueprint thing popped up. But luckily Annabeth was in the library too that time, and we figured out what it was."

"Which was…?"

"The Labyrinth," he said. "They send you down there. They lock you up there, and there _is_ a way out, but it's constantly changing. No one ever found the way out. Those who were rescued went mad and died in a few days."

My mouth gaped like a fish. "But wait, is there a way out of the school like that?"

Grover hesitated. "Yeah. But Percy, you're not really thinking of—"

"It's a chance," I said. "We can tell people what's going on in there. And maybe we can get the others out."

"I guess," Grover muttered. "I mean, if you're up for it, I'll go too."

"Thanks, man," I said. "Do you know how to get in the Labyrinth?"

Grover shook his head. "The thing just said that there's a bunch of entrances around. The hard thing is finding them. As for opening them, only certain people can open them."

_Certain people…_ Like what Daedalus had said.

"We got that covered," I said. "Classes are canceled tomorrow so we have a lot of time for snooping around."

"Okay," Grover said. "This'll be fun."

I nodded. "Let's just rest up tonight. I'll ask Annabeth if she wants to come if I see her."

Grover smirked. "Alright then. See you."

I didn't see Annabeth the whole day which was a bummer. So I spent my time with Rachel since Grover was off with Juniper doing things that I really didn't want to know about.

"The Labyrinth," Rachel said. "That's cool."

"Other than the fact that you can die in there," I added.

"What's life without a little bit of trouble?"

She was next to me, like _right_ next to me.

I cleared my throat. "So you really didn't see Annabeth anywhere?"

Rachel shook her head, her hair flouncing all over the place. "She wasn't anywhere."

I frowned. "I was gonna ask her if she wanted to come with us to the Labyrinth."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "You just have _amazing_ places to go on dates."

The words didn't register their meaning until a few minutes later. I took a swig from my canteen and my face flushed. "I don't like her! At least not in _that_ way!"

Rachel chuckled, and we were just joking around during the whole dinner in the hallway… Yeah, they didn't trust us after we had wrecked that building. I wondered how the sponsors would feel about it.

* * *

I woke up the next day feeling like all the water got sapped out of me. I was dizzy, and my vision was blurry. My throat was sore, and my hands felt wrinkly. I quickly reached out for the bottle and took a big gulp. I felt immediately better.

There was a loud clanging of the mailbox. I rushed outside and saw Argus coming to my door with a letter. He saw me and handed it to me personally.

"Is it for me?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Thanks, I guess," I said, and went back inside.

I opened the envelope and saw that it was a newsletter. A really short one as in not even half a page.

_Hey, wake up all of you punks! The sponsors are coming today, so classes are canceled! Yeah, go ahead and celebrate. But you can't come out of your dorms! So no coming down to the ground floor. If we catch you, you'll be here your entire life!_

_-Mr. D_

I scoffed. I crumpled the paper and threw it in the trashcan. It went in perfectly without hitting the rim. I left my room to wake up Grover.

I saw Nico's room along the way. The door was open which was strange. I peeked inside, ready for a barrage of curses and screaming, but none came. His room was cleared and none of his belongings were in sight. His room key was on his desk.

"Perce?" Grover yawned opening his door. "You're already awake?"

"Yeah, thanks to Argus," I said. "Did you read the letter?"

Grover nodded. "They just said not to come down, so technically we can still wander around this floor."

I grinned. "You're awesome."

"I know," he said. "Let's go wake up Annabeth."

We shuffled across the hallway in our pajamas and looking generally stupid.

"Excuse me," a voice said, and we turned around.

The owner of the voice was a guy around my age with blonde hair and blue eyes. He reminded me of Luke except this guy showed a bit more muscle (though I was sure Luke could whoop his butt any day) and he had a small scar above his lip.

"Yeah?" I said, stifling a yawn.

"You're not supposed to be wandering around here at this time," he said.

"Same goes for you," I said. "Nice Superman pajamas by the way."

His face turned red, but laughed it off. "Thanks. The staff told me to keep an eye out for anyone who breaks the rules."

"Been there, done that," Grover muttered, and I laughed.

"So you're _that_ kind of person, eh?" I said. I offered him a hand. "Percy Jackson."

He smirked. "Jason Grace."

"Oh, you're that guy Rachel was talking about," I said.

He nodded. "She kind of creeps me out, to be honest." He grinned. "You were the guy that got called to the office, right?"

I smacked my face. "Yeah. Anyway, we'll be going now. See you around Jason."

"Ditto."

He let us go, and we continued on our way to the girls' dorm. I really hoped they weren't out in the hallway unclothed. That'd be really disturbing.

We knocked on Annabeth's door.

"Come in," she called. Dang, she sounded tired.

I opened the door, and saw Annabeth still in bed, but awake. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"You told us to come in," I said.

"Hey, Grover," she said, ignoring me.

"Morning," he said.

"Did I do something wrong?" I said.

"No, close the door," she ordered.

I did what she asked, and she sat up in bed. It was kind of strange seeing her with her hair down after seeing it in a ponytail all the time. She looked pretty with her hair down too, even though she didn't brush it.

"Where were you yesterday?" I asked. "I was looking all over for you."

"You seemed to be having fun with Rachel," she said, flopping back in bed.

"What?"

"Oh my gods, Perce," Grover said, looking at the ceiling.

"Really, what the heck is going on?" I said.

"Keep your voice down!" Annabeth scolded. "You want them to know that you're here?"

"Right," I said. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to come to the Labyrinth with us."

"You guys are crazy," she said, and rolled herself in her blankets. She rolled away to face the wall. "Ask Rachel."

"I'm asking _you,_" I said.

She sat up again, still wrapped in her blankets. She stared into space. "Right. What makes you think that I'll go?"

"You're the one who got us all into this," Grover said.

She gave him a glare like, _Thanks for your support._ "Fine."

I grinned. "I heard that today's the perfect day for sneaking around. We can go look for the entrance, no problem."

"And why is that?"

"The sponsor is coming," I said. "We just avoid them, and we're bound to hear them from a distance so we can hide if they're coming."

"Please Percy," she said rolling her eyes. "You don't need to call them the _sponsor_ all the time."

"Then what do I call them?"

"You really don't know?" she said, as if she was talking to a child. "Othrys is coming."

Our jaws dropped.

"Othrys? No way!" Grover said.

"And I think Kronos is coming with Atlas I think," she said.

"That's awful!" Grover cried. He was being pretty overdramatic right now.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But we can still do it. Right?"

She looked at me with her sharp eyes, and I nodded. "Yup."

"Let me get cleaned up," she yawned and finally got out of bed.

"Hey, it's fine!" I said. "We're still in our pj's. It doesn't matter."

"Fine," she said and slipped her sneakers on. "But if I get humiliated, I'm blaming it on you."

"Hey, your owl pajamas are cute," I grinned.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," she said and smacked me. But she was blushing.

Grover rolled his eyes and sighed. "Lovebirds."

He got a smack too, courtesy of Annabeth.

"Let's get a move on," she said. "No talking about love or anything like that. Got it?"

"Got it," we chorused.


	22. Chapter 22

**I really don't like this chapter. Seriously. I know updates are going pretty slow, especially since I had a writer's block. Plus I'm updating the New Storm more often than this.**

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* * *

We went down the stairs, and almost got caught immediately. A person was coming in with broad shoulders.

"It's Atlas!" Grover hissed.

Annabeth shoved us into the shadows.

"Welcome," Chiron said with a forced smile. "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Atlas."

"His last name is Atlas?" I whispered. Annabeth slapped me.

Atlas grunted. "You trashed the whole school while we were gone."

"Well, lookie here!" Mr. D said waltzing into the conversation. "Let's get this over with quickly. As you saw, the building broke down, and the secondary building is not in good shape. And our cafeteria is ruined."

"Typical," Atlas growled, but let him be led away.

We got out of the shadows.

"What now?" I asked. "How are we gonna find the entrance?"

"There's a Greek Delta on it," Annabeth said. "I saw one a few years ago, but the Labyrinth is constantly moving so I don't know where it is now."

"That's helpful," I muttered.

She scowled as we walked around looking at the walls.

"Why don't we check upstairs?" Grover suggested. "Daedalus might know."

I took a sip of my drink. "Maybe. But are you sure it's safe?"

"We'll split up then," Annabeth said curtly. "Grover, you're coming with me."

"Wait, what? Hey—" he said as Annabeth dragged him off.

I sighed and walked around the offices. Nothing. I heard voices in the cafeteria and went to go check it out.

"So they found out," Atlas muttered.

"Well, _duh._ You Titans aren't very subtle about it," Mr. D said.

"It's not like you Olympians are better either," he snapped.

"We don't create monsters as you do," Chiron said. "Should we continue?"

"No, wait until Kronos gets here," Atlas said. "This is a mess."

"Alright then," Chiron sighed. "But where will you stay now?"

"You should've been more responsible," Atlas snapped. "All classes are canceled for the month while we're rebuilding."

"But we'll still have the group therapy," Chiron said. He didn't give him a chance to argue and wheeled himself out of the room.

He looked at me, and got a sly glint in his eyes. He motioned over to his office, and I followed him.

"What's he doing here?" Atlas scowled.

"Oh, I need to discuss detention with him," he said cheerily.

Atlas scowled. "He looks like Poseidon."

I flinched, and Chiron put a hand on my shoulder.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Mr. D said, strolling out of the cafeteria. "He looks like old Barnacle Beard. So what? There's a whole bunch of people here that are ungrateful children of famous people."

"Yes," Chiron said. "If Poseidon really did have a son, then what's the big deal? Zeus had one too." His voice hardened at the end.

Atlas glared at him. "It's only because of that stupid pact that Olympus survived this long. We can always break it, if you do so as well."

"Whatever," Mr. D said, waving his hand. "Chiron, do whatever you have to do. And if this man keeps on pestering me, I'm going to have to find a room at a five star hotel for him."

"Come in, Carlos," Chiron said, looking at Atlas.

I realized that he was talking to me, and followed him inside his office.

"Percy," Chiron said. "I know you're looking for the Labyrinth."

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Will it help if I told you it was dangerous, perhaps even suicidal?"

I shook my head.

He sighed. "At least you were smart enough not to venture outside on your own directly. If you did, well, you'd probably be dead. We have a top-notch security here."

I nodded. "I don't suppose you can give us any help?"

He shook his head. "The Labyrinth doesn't like to be searched for. It will reveal itself to those who aren't looking for it intentionally."

"Without the riddles please?"

"You won't find it if you keep searching for it that way," he smiled. "I recommend taking another sip of your drink. You look very dry."

I took a sip. I didn't even realize how dehydrated I was.

"When will this be fixed?" I asked.

"Next detention," Chiron said. "Though Daedalus should be in his lab if you go look."

"Thank you," I said and got up.

"And Percy?" he said, and I looked back. "Don't tell your name to anyone who asks. I hope you find the Labyrinth before Kronos comes. He should be coming in a few days."

I nodded. "Okay."

He smiled sadly, and I left. I went back up to the dorm and stood in front of the staircase that led to the third floor.

"Percy?" Daedalus said, approaching me.

I jumped. "Oh! Um, hello. I thought you were up in your… lab."

He chuckled. "Well, I'm human too, so naturally I had to grab something to eat." He showed me his blueberry muffin and coffee. "Come on up, I brought some other food."

I went up the stairs after him. Stupid, I know, to go after someone because they offer food, but I was starving. The school didn't send us any breakfast today.

"I have a double cheeseburger from Aunty Em's," he said, taking food out of his plastic bag. "Some donuts from Monster Donuts…"

He invited me to snack on the food he brought, which I did so gratefully.

"And lastly, candy from Sweet on America!" he said.

My eyes widened. I wondered if my mom was still working there. How was she doing? I didn't send any mail or call my mom this week, so I should be able to.

"Is something wrong?" Daedalus asked. I shook my head and attacked the blueberry sour strings.

"So why did you come here?" he asked.

"Detention," I said. "Can you fix this?"

Daedalus sighed. "I tried to think of a solution all night, and I think I have one, though I'm not so sure."

"Try," I said. "That's the point of detention in this school—experimenting on the students, so what so different about me?"

He muttered something under his breath, and told me to go sit on the chair. He rummaged around his desk and got out a syringe.

"This won't hurt as much, I think," he said. "Are you ready?"

I nodded, and he injected the syringe in my arm. I gasped. I felt cold, but not unpleasantly so. It was like being in the water. My mind felt refreshed, and it stopped.

"How do you feel?" Daedalus asked.

"Much better," I said.

"You look much better too," he noted, and jotted down notes.

"Sir, do you know anything about the Labyrinth?" I asked.

He flinched. "Yes, I was part of the team that made it."

"You _made_ it?"

"Along with Pasiphae, yes," he said. "I'd suggest you don't go looking for it, but I know you won't listen."

"You're right," I said.

"A regular mortal could help," he said, but I had no idea what he meant.

"An example please?"

"Ariadne," he said. "Though I suppose you've never heard of her."

I nodded.

"Hmmm…" he said. "In this school, I'd say Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She's a wonderful girl and actually quite reminds me of Ariadne."

"But who is Ariadne?" I asked.

"Dionysus's wife," he said. "Mr. D."

My jaw dropped. Mr. D was _married?_

"Come here again before you enter the Labyrinth," Daedalus said. "I have something that might help you."

"Okay," I said. "Thank you. When will it be ready?"

"I'll try to finish it by tomorrow," he said.

I nodded and left. I bumped into Grover and Annabeth on the second floor.

"Percy, where were you?" she demanded.

"Places," I said. "I talked to Daedalus."

"And…?" Grover said.

"He said that Rachel could help us find the entrance," I said.

Annabeth's face darkened. I had no idea why. Did something bad happen between them? "We don't need her help."

"You didn't find anything for the past hour," I pointed out.

"That doesn't mean we need her help!" she said.

"What's up with you?" I said. "You're Rachel's friend, and now you're just mad at her for no reason! It doesn't hurt to ask for help, you know!"

"But it's unnecessary help," she insisted. "We're doing perfectly fine on our own."

Grover groaned into his hands.

"Then maybe you should just look for it with Rachel! If you like her so much," Annabeth said.

"I never said that!" I said. We were yelling now, and students were peeking out of their rooms to see what was going on. They did a double-take when they saw Annabeth here.

"Then why don't you listen when I saw that we don't need her help?" she said.

"Because I know we do," I said.

"Then why don't you just take her along instead?" Annabeth yelled. "And see how much she can help you?"

"Fine then," I said.

"Do whatever you want. I don't care," she said.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

I felt like a little kid, but we stormed off in our separate ways.

"Perce, you just totally screwed things up," Grover said.

"Not my fault," I scowled. "She's just an annoying bossy brat."

"Don't say that," Grover said.

"What? It's true!"

"You're so clueless," Grover said.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly my point," he said.

"I'm going to go talk to Rachel," I said. "And see if she wants to tag along."

"My point is proven," he said. "You don't even know where her room is!"

"I'll ask Juniper," I said. "You know her room right?"

Grover blushed. "Yeah."

"Good, let's go."

Rachel's room turned out to be Room 20G. There was loud strange music blaring out of the room. I knocked.

"Coming!" she sighed, and the music turned off. She opened the door. "Oh, Percy! Hey, Grover."

"Hey," I said. "Can we come in?"

"Sure," she said, and made way.

She was wearing a white shirt and jeans covered with paint and doodles. Her red frizzy hair wasn't brushed, but I didn't really expect her to brush it.

"So why did you come here?" Rachel asked.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to come to the Labyrinth with us. You know what it is, right?" I asked.

She nodded. "I looked in Annabeth's notes in the library. But why me?"

"Daedalus said that you could help," I said.

An amused smile came on her face. "Really?"

Grover coughed awkwardly. "Annabeth."

"I had a fight with her," I admitted.

"That's what I thought," she said. "But I'd love to come."

"You can get killed," Grover said.

"Even better," she said. "But Percy, do you know why Annabeth's mad at you?"

"No," I said. "She's just being really weird.

Rachel sighed and shook her head. "Boys."

"Hey, don't do that to me too!"

She laughed. "Just come by whenever. See you later."

We left her room, and just happened to bump into Annabeth on the way.

"Move it," she growled. She shoved us out of the way and kept on walking.

"What's up with her?" I hissed. "Even _Nancy_ didn't do that."

Grover cleared his throat. "Actually, I'm not sure if you noticed, but Nancy and Matt were gone for some time."

I thought about it, and it was true. There were others that picked on us occasionally, but Matt and Nancy were nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"Who knows," Grover sighed. "Perce, you're going to have to sort out your problems soon."

"What problems?"

Grover bumped his head against the wall. "Never mind."

We walked back to our rooms like that. We passed by Nico's room again, but this time the door was closed. I knocked, but no one replied. I kept knocking.

"He's not in there," Grover said, checking the mailbox. "He didn't even read the newsletter."

I sighed in defeat. "Why does everyone hate me right now?"

Grover laughed. "Don't worry, Perce. I'm here for you."

"Sure," I said and punched his shoulder in response.

"Let's start packing," Grover suggested. "Then we can head to Daedalus's and head on to the Labyrinth."

"Sounds like a plan."


	23. Chapter 23

**I updated pretty quickly, so I'm kinda proud. **

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* * *

I went through the day without getting into any trouble—if you don't count that time when Atlas caught me roaming around when my toilet decided to clog up on me on some unknown substance. He went "easy" on me and made me mop the floors of the whole entire building, including the other one while he kept making muddy footsteps on the floor.

I tried sneaking out a few times to see Annabeth, but she wouldn't answer the door. Everyone said that they didn't see her come back.

"I don't know what's up with her!" I said, throwing my hands down. "Is it something that I said?"

Grover eyed me warily. "I don't know Perce. Maybe."

I sighed. "I'll go see if she's there in the morning. 'Night."

"'Night."

* * *

Grover woke me up the next day bright and early…. Or maybe not so bright, seeing that the freaking sun wasn't up yet.

"Grover!" I complained as he slammed open my door.

"We have stuff to do," he said. "Are you going to go to the Labyrinth in your pajamas like last time, or are you gonna change?"

"I'll change," I said and groggily got up from bed.

I banged my head against the wall a few times trying to find the closet. I was aware of Grover stifling his laugh behind me. I quickly grabbed the first clothes I reached and went in the restroom.

Grover sighed when I came out. "A school uniform won't do it, Perce."

I looked down at my clothes. It was the new uniform that Annabeth had bought me when I ruined mine last time. "Oh. Oh well."

He shook his head. "It has pockets, right?"

"Pockets? Yeah," I said. I reached inside and felt my pen there though I never put it there. Strange.

"Rachel's probably waiting. Let's go," Grover said.

Turns out, Grover was right. Rachel opened the door looking all fresh and clean. She was wearing a white blouse and some jean shorts that were obviously doodled on. Her green eyes sparkled as if the thought of going into a Labyrinth that can get you killed was enjoyable.

"You're late," she said. "It's 5:40."

"No wonder I'm tired," I yawned. Grover kicked me.

Rachel grabbed her purse and made a face at it. "My dad sent it for whatever reason. I don't even talk to him, but my backpack ripped when I kind of… threw it out the window."

I chuckled. "I'm going to go check up on Annabeth and see if she's there. Then we'll go to Daedalus."

Rachel's face fell for a bit, but she immediately recovered so I assumed that I was imagining that. "Alright then. But just so you know, none of us saw her yesterday. Silena stayed up all night to see if she would show, but no luck."

My heart sank. "It's worth a shot."

I knocked on her door. No answer. I knocked again. I ended up kicking her door in frustration.

"Percy?" Rachel said, lightly touching my arm. "We should go. If she was there, I'm pretty sure she would've woken up by now."

I looked down at my feet. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just being stupid."

I shuffled away from her door to Daedalus's lab.

"You're here early," he said, taking a swig of his coffee. "There's more coffee over there if you'd like."

"Coffee!" Grover said, and rushed over. Rachel smiled and went to go get one of her own.

"Okay, I think I have this right," Daedalus said. He instructed me to sit in the seat. "Grover, you come here too."

"M-me?" he stuttered, nearly dropping his coffee.

"It won't hurt," Daedalus promised. "Rachel, I'm sorry, but I don't have one of these made for you. I assumed that the other girl was coming."

"Oh, it's fine," she said, seeming relieved.

"Arms out," he instructed, and I did so naturally, but Grover was trembling.

"It's fine, man," I said. That's when the needle hit me.

I heard a big wave from the ocean along with the little lapping sounds of a creek. I saw a huge waterfall, and it changed to a scene to a beach. I breathed in and smelled the salt from the ocean spray. I felt my legs get wet as I went in the ocean. I went up to my waist, then _floom!_ I was underwater, but everything felt cool. I let the water overtake me, and I opened my eyes.

"Good, good," Daedalus nodded. "Rachel, pass me that cup of water please."

Rachel did obediently as he asked.

"Okay, Percy. I want you to concentrate," he said. "Concentrate on the water and imagine that you're… lifting it like you might carry a stack of books."

"Um, okay," I said.

I stared at the cup of eater, imagining it as a sphere above the cup. I felt a weird feeling in my gut, and the water rose out of the cup in a sphere.

"That's amazing," Rachel said.

Grover nodded in awe.

"It might be a bit hard to control at first," Daedalus said. "But you'll get the hang of it."

I nodded, a bit shaken up by the new powers. How did Daedalus make these?

"As for you, Grover, you're going to have to find out along the way," he said. "It's simple and not very complex. But I believe your power will help. And these are a gift."

He gave him a set of… were those reed pipes?

"I have a few songs for you here," he muttered, giving him some sheets of paper. "You'll be a natural. They all have different effects, so be careful."

Grover nodded. "But how will we find the entrance to the Labyrinth?"

"Daedalus talked to me about it while you guys were knocked out," Rachel said casually as if us bring knocked out was an everyday thing. "We did some tests, and turns out that I have something that Daedalus calls _clear sight._ It's hard to explain, but I can lead you, but I might not be of much help other than that."

"It's fine," I said. "Thanks for everything."

Daedalus gave me a slight smile as we left.

"So where do we go?" I asked.

"Someplace that isn't here," she said, and led us down to the first floor.

The school was eerie. I never thought about how deadly quiet the school could be. I flinched every time I heard a noise. To my dismay, Rachel led us to the girls' restroom.

"There is no way the entrance will be there," I laughed.

"Want to bet?" she smirked.

"I'll bet you a batch of my mom's chocolate chip cookies if we ever get out of here."

"Sounds good to me," she shrugged.

We reluctantly followed her into the restroom, and she proudly motioned to the glowing Delta sign on the floor of one of the stalls.

"Wow," Grover said.

Rachel smiled smugly. "I guess you owe me a batch of cookies now."

I rolled my eyes and she shoved me playfully. I stepped on the tile with the Delta on it, and it slid open into a bigger opening. I fell screaming.

Then I landed on my butt ungracefully. "Ow!"

"Percy!" Grover yelled. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I called. "I think it's sort of like a slide but I just had rotten luck. Come on down!"  
They jumped, and I heard them scream as they came down. Rachel landed on top of me making me groan.

"Sorry," she grinned. "So this is the Labyrinth?"

The ceiling rumbled to a close on top of us, leaving us in darkness. Rachel rummaged in her purse and pulled out a flashlight.

"Well, you came prepared," Grover said.

"Of course," she said. "So what's our destination?"

"Um… New York, but not in this school?" I said.

Rachel laughed. "Alright then. This way. Don't blame me if we end up in another bathroom!"

I sighed and Rachel marched in front of us leading the way. She was amazing. She didn't even hesitate at the forks.

"We need to pass by the center," Rachel said. "But there's this bad feeling…."

"It's fine," I said. "Keep on going. We'll have to pass by it some time."

Grover shook his head. "I smell something weird."

"Yeah, this whole place smells like public restrooms," I said.

"No. Like worse than that. I can't explain it," he said.

"We'll just deal with whatever comes our way," I shrugged. "Keep on going."

We reached a blue cylinder with a door on it.

"This place?" I said. I tried to move forward, but my legs stayed frozen in place.

Rachel nodded. "And we can't turn back around."

"Yes, that's true," some said from behind us, and Grover yelped.

There was a lady on fire—or her hair was on fire anyway. She looked like a vampire until you looked at her legs. One was a goat leg and the other was a bronze leg. I almost passed out.

"On you go," she said. She protruded a spear from nowhere and pointed at us.

I gulped and we walked on inside.

Inside was a huge arena, crowded with monsters. I guessed they moved them here after I kind of wrecked their building. In the center, a boy a few years younger than me was fighting against a hellhound. As I watched, the hellhound leaped on him and he screamed. When the hellhound jumped off, he was nowhere to be seen.

The crowd cheered.

Rage ran through my blood. How could they find this _entertaining?_ Killing people?

"Sit," she said shoved us onto the ground. Rachel landed on top of me again.

"Is this going to be a common thing?" I smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "You wish."

I saw a huge man with wave tattoos all over his body sitting with Luke at the top of the stage. Luke saw me and grinned. I clenched my fists. How could Annabeth like this guy?

"That was a good show," Luke said loudly, clapping his hands. "Now my Lord Antaeus, I have a good contestant for you." He looked down at me with his cold blue eyes. "Percy Jackson."

Apparently the monsters have heard my name before because they started throwing rocks, spitballs, tomatoes, and anything else they could find.

Antaeus just nodded. "Send him out."

A bulky giant at least seven feet tall picked me up and threw me into the center of the arena. I landed hard on my left leg, and tripped. The crowd laughed. Rachel and Grover were looking at me, fear clearly shown in their eyes.

"Send in the next contestant," Antaeus boomed.

The door on the other side opened, and I gasped. Annabeth stepped in with mud and grime covering her face. Her eyes looked like a hungry wolf's. Her hair was a bit uneven on the ends as if she got an unexpected haircut.

"Fight!"

Annabeth unsheathed her dagger, and I instinctively uncapped my pen. Annabeth came at me and slashed at me with her dagger. I caught her strike on the hilt of my sword.

"Annabeth, what are you doing?" I said.

"Fighting you, what does it look like," she growled, and kicked my bad leg.

I winced and fell on one knee. She tried to attack me again, but I rolled and parried. The monsters roared, wanting a more interesting show.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked as I parried another strike.

She froze for a second, and I used that chance to disarm her. Her knife skidded against the floor. "That's none of your business."

"Yes it is. You're one of my best friends, and that makes it my business on why you want to kill me," I said.

"Boo! Less talk, more fighting!" a shrill voice said. The others joined in and started throwing more things.

"You got her disarmed, Jackson," Luke called. "Are you a coward? Do you not know how to kill somebody?"

Annabeth gave Luke a glare, but I could see the insecurity below her anger. I pointed my sword at her, but she didn't react. "I know you can't kill me."

I knew she was right. How could I? I lowered my sword, and Annabeth hit my hand, making me drop the sword. She flipped me over her shoulder and planted one knee on my chest. She looked up at Antaeus who gave her a thumbs down sign.

Her eyes moved back and forth between me and Luke, and I felt her trembling. I looked at Grover, hoping he could cause a distraction.

He met my eyes and pulled out his pipes. He started playing a little jig, and vines starting to grow on the ceiling, bringing it down. The monsters started panicking and running each other over.

"Come on Annabeth, we'll get out of here," I said. "Together."

I pried her off me and gave her dagger back. My sword returned to my pocket in pen form.

"Percy, it's this exit!" Rachel said.

I nodded. "You go first. I'll catch up."

She gave me a doubtful look, but ran out with Grover.

"Come on, let's go," I said, but Annabeth shook her head.

"The monsters are going to regroup," she said, and her expression became hard. "I'll distract them while you go with _Rachel._"

"No, wait, Annabeth!" I said, but she started shoving me out the door.

"They're coming. So hurry," she said.

"Annabeth," I said, looking back at her once more. "Stay safe."

Her expression softened a bit and a small smile graced her features. "I'll try."

She slammed the doors behind me, and I heard her lock it so that I didn't try to come back. Sometimes she was too smart for her own good.

"Percy! We need to leave _now,"_ Rachel said. "The ground and ceiling are unstable. Hurry!"

Grover gave me a curious look, and we ran off, not thinking about any place in particular. Instead, I found myself thinking of Annabeth as we ran for our lives.


	24. Chapter 24

**This chapter is more of a filler, so sorry if it isn't what you expected. **

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"Let's stop here," Rachel panted as we ran into a huge room.

"Are we safe?" Grover asked.

"When are we _ever_ safe?" I muttered.

We sat down in the center, and I shivered a little bit.

"Is your leg okay?" Grover asked.

"I don't know," I said. Now that we were temporarily out of danger, my leg was aching again. "I guess so. Yeah."

"Daedalus gave me his inventions," Rachel said rummaging around her purse. She pulled out a small Ziploc bag of what looked like lemon bars. "Here. Just a tiny piece though."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's like a solid version of the thing you were drinking," she said. "He decided to call it ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink of the gods," Grover said.

I broke off a small piece and ate it. It tasted like popcorn, and I felt the pain dissipate.

"Does anyone want to take a short nap?" Grover yawned.

"Yeah," Rachel said.

Grover passed out immediately and started snoring.

"I'll take first watch," I said. "Sleep."

"After what I just saw?" Rachel sighed. "Alright. I'll try. Wake us up for second watch, okay?"

"Sure," I said, and she used her purse as a pillow and fell asleep.

I sighed and rocked on my knees back and forth. My hands tapped the ground, looking for something to do. Speaking of which, it was getting dark. I uncapped my sword, but that only provided a faint bronze light that only succeeded in making things more ghostly.

I played with the hilt of my sword, rolling it around in my hands. What time was it back up there? Did time even go at the same pace here?

Grover grunted in his sleep and said, "Foood."

Typical Grover, I thought.

I wondered how my mom was doing. I was going to try contacting her, but I forgot. Guilt washed over me. How could I forget about my own mother? I hoped that Gabe didn't find her. Then again, he was too lazy to even go to the restroom (it got really smelly on the couch).

I couldn't stand being still anymore with these stupid thoughts. I got up, sword in hand and started pacing around the room. The air started to get cold which was no surprise since we were underground. Was this even considered underground?

I kicked a pebble in frustration. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't leave, and it was dark, so I'd probably crash into something or fall into a pit. Plus, I didn't bring extra layers.

That was it. I had to do _something._ I got a stick and wrote in the dirt, _Went for a walk. Just wait for me when you wake up. If you need me, follow my trail. –Percy_

It probably wasn't the wisest idea, leaving my friends in danger, but I'd hear something. I'd come right back if something happened.

I gathered a huge pile of pebbles, and dropped them as I went along in the maze, feeling like Hansel and Gretel. There were strange drawings on the wall that looked like those ancient Greek and Roman drawings on vases.

I heard something strange a bit farther away, and tried to locate where it was coming from. I could barely make out the voice now.

"Percy…." Annabeth's voice said.

"Annabeth?" I called. My voice echoed through the narrow passageway.

"Here," she said, a bit louder. She broke out into a fit of coughing.

I ran through the passageway, but there was a strange chill on my back. Something wasn't right.

"Annabeth, are you here?" I asked as I reached a big tunnel.

"Here," she said, but when I turned in the location of her voice, I saw a one eyed creature staring at me hungrily. "Just in time for dinner."

"Oh my god," I said, almost passing out. Was this thing a Cyclops? My stomach churned.

The Cyclops charged at me with his hands reaching out on either side as if he wanted a hug. Thankfully he was big enough for me to roll under. I slashed at his back, and he roared.

"I won't be someone's dinner that easily," I said.

The Cyclops punched the tunnel and ripped out a huge chunk of the wall. He raised his arms over his head and threw the boulder.

I ducked and shielded my head as it hit the area above my head. The pieces of the broken rock rained upon my head.

He ran at me again, but I swung my sword at his legs, and he tripped. I jumped to avoid getting flattened. I mean, being flattened by a smelly monster isn't my number one way to die.

The Cyclops grinned. "Got you."

He grabbed my legs to keep me from moving, and started strangling my neck. I gagged, both from the smell and pain.

"You'll make a good meal," he rumbled.

"No, don't," I croaked. His grip strengthened.

My mind started getting fuzzy. I wasn't getting enough oxygen. After being dehydrated for so long, this wasn't a good feeling.

"Who's going to stop me?" he said, and unhinged his jaw.

I gagged again as his smelly breath. He really needed to go to a dentist to check up on his teeth too.

I guess this is it, I thought. The last thing I'll ever see will be this guy's rotten teeth.

I closed my eyes, and felt myself being dropped. Instead of going into the monster's mouth, I fell on the floor on my head. The impact echoed through my head.

"How low can you go to start imitating a friend's voice to lure someone?" someone said.

There was a scream followed by a big thump.

"Percy, wake up," Annabeth said, shaking me. "I know you're alive."

I moved my mouth to speak, but couldn't. My eyes wouldn't operate either.

"Okay," she sighed. "I'm not another Cyclops, so don't freak, okay? I'm going to help you up, and we're going to follow your stones back to wherever you were. Okay?"

She wrapped her arms around me and helped me stand up. She put my arm around her shoulder and did the same for her arm.

"Try opening your eyes again," she said. "I don't want to be responsible for you smacking your face on a wall."

"How nice," I croaked.

"I'd feel sorry for the wall, personally, but try," Annabeth said.

I blinked hard. I saw something, and blinked a few more times.

"You okay now?" Annabeth asked. Her hair was down, and had her dagger in her hand.

"Yeah," I said, sucking in some air.

"I'm just going to help you walk. I think you can see perfectly fine on your own," she said.

I smiled. "Yup. You won't have to see my pretty little face crashing into a wall."

She scoffed. "Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

"So what happened to you?" I asked. "Like how did you get in the Labyrinth? I thought you weren't coming."

"I went to check Nico's room," she said. "Seems rather strange that he just disappeared, doesn't it? I found an entrance to the Labyrinth there, but it looked dug out, almost. Most of it was unintentional in a way.

"Luke found me a few minutes after I went in there. He asked me if I would join him, but of course I refused. So he took me captive, and made me fight in the arena. After that, well, I was just wandering around most of the time, and popped out in a few random places like Alcatraz and stuff."

"All that in a few hours?"

"Time flows differently in the Labyrinth," Annabeth said. "Time isn't stable here, so some parts of it have faster or slower time than others. Like for example, when I popped out to Colorado, several months passed, but in Alcatraz, only a day or two."

"I have no idea what that means, but thanks," I said.

"Why am I not surprised?" she sighed.

"Well, you _are_ Wise Girl after all."

"You suck at making nicknames."

"Oh, shut up."

Our eyes met, and she quickly looked away. "The trail stopped."

She was right. My Hansel and Gretel trail disappeared, but Grover and Rachel weren't here. There was no trace of them.

"But… they were here a moment before," I said.

"The Labyrinth is strange. It tricks you," she said. "Maybe the path changed or something."

"They're not dead though, right?" I said.

"I doubt it. They're both resourceful, and they're not weak," Annabeth said. "We should try to get to New York that's not near the school."

"So… how?"

"I think we can drill our way into a basement or something," she mused. "Most of the entrances and exits were smooth transitions."

"I fell down the girls' restroom."

Annabeth made a sound that sounded like a mixture of coughing and laughing. "Well, isn't that lovely?"

"Very," I grumbled.

"We can think of contacting them after we get out of here," Annabeth said. "But be careful. There are other people down here, and some of them are students gone mad."

"Did you meet any?"

She nodded. "It wasn't nice. I ran into Chris Rodriguez, but luckily or unluckily there was an exit near us that was near this mental hospital, so he was taken there."

"What was wrong with him?" I frowned. I had hardly known Chris, but he seemed like a pretty cool and chill guy to me. I mean, he hung out with Clarisse, and that was not easy feat.

"He was babbling about string," she recalled.

"String," I said.

"Yes, string," she said. "I don't know what it was about, but string."

"Which way now?" I asked, once we reached a fork.

"That way," she said, pointing to the left.

"How do you know?"

"Deductive reasoning."

"So… you're guessing."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's go."

We walked down a long hallway which reminded me of the school's at night.

"Percy?" Annabeth said.

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me, or does everything seem darker and… dead down here?"

I frowned as I tried to see what she meant, but I definitely felt it. Something felt odd and a bit off about here. There was a dark aura.

Annabeth yelped as she almost fell down a hole.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A hole, what do you think?" she said.

"Gee, thanks. But what's it doing _here?"_

Somehow someone dug out a hole about ten feet deep in the middle of a tiled floor. Why they would do that down here, I didn't know.

I heard faint, eerie sounds, and turned around. "You hear that?"

Annabeth nodded. "But what is it?"

I saw something shimmering out of the corner of my eye. It was a pale humanoid figure, but you could see through it. There were more, floating around it. Ghosts.

"Please tell me that I'm not hallucinating," I murmured.

Annabeth paled. "I wish."

She grabbed my hand, and I blushed. But I didn't pull away. I wanted reassurance that someone else was alive here too.

The ghosts came closer, and they separated, hovering around random places. They started approaching us in large numbers. One of them screamed in our face.

I made the most unmanly-est scream ever.

"Do we run?" I asked.

"Well, no duh!" Annabeth said, and we ran back from where we came from.

I noticed that Annabeth was still grabbing my hand, not letting go.

"We won't get separated," I reassured.

Her face flushed. "Well, it's best to be careful, isn't it?"

We stopped when the howling of the ghosts disappeared.

"Why are there ghosts down here?" Annabeth muttered.

"I didn't even think ghosts were real," I added.

"Well, after all we've been through, I guess it's not the most impossible thing," she shrugged.

We caught our breath, and promptly collapsed. I didn't know why I felt so weak, but after seeing those ghosts, I just felt like all the energy got drained out of me.

"If every turn is going to be like this, it's going to take a long time to get back to the surface," Annabeth sighed.

"But we won't give up, will we?" I said. "We'll all get out of here. I know it."

She gave me a sly smile. "Well, if I knew that I had to stay this long with you, I would've preferred a different partner."

"Hey!"

"Just kidding," she laughed. "You ready? Let's try the other tunnel."


	25. Chapter 25

**Sorry for not updating in a while. I had this major writer's block and I just managed to get out of it yesterday when I thought of this new story idea (on my Tumblr), but this chapter is still... well, crap.  
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We jogged through the next tunnel, not even knowing what we were going to meet. We didn't talk.

"So what's up with you and Rachel?" I asked. "I mean, you guys used to be best buds."

Her expression darkened and I wished that I could sew my mouth shut. "Nothing," she said. "You must be imagining it."

I was pretty sure that wasn't the case, but I didn't push her.

"Do you know what made Chris go all mad?" I asked again to break the silence.

She shook her head. "He was mumbling about string."

"String," I said.

"Yeah, string," Annabeth said. "Don't ask me about it, okay?"

I stayed silent. Annabeth chose a few random tunnels when the roads forked off.

Finally Annabeth sighed. "I'm sorry Percy. I'm just… stressed."

I turned around to look at her face. "Where exactly did you go?"

She flinched. "Somewhere."

I couldn't stand it anymore. "Annabeth, you're cutting off our conversations."

"I'll tell you later," she said.

We took a short awkward break and continued on. The texture of the tunnels kept changing to bricks and steel and other materials that I couldn't name.

When we turned left, the walls changed again to a school-like hallway. I really hoped there weren't any ghosts here like before.

There was one classroom door however with some scratch marks on the handle. I put my hand on the handle when Annabeth said, "Wait."

Too late. I opened the door and got hit by a huge blast of wind. My hair flew back and my face felt like it was peeling off.

"Go away!" a familiar voice yelled, and I blocked my face with my arm instinctively as another blast of air came out. Later I found out that it was a group of ghosts.

"Nico," I said. "Stop, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Liar! You killed my sister!"

"I didn't! I tried to stop her, I really did!" I said, the guilt forming freshly in my gut. "Nico, please listen to me."

The wind stopped and Nico drew a black sword that I hadn't noticed before. I wondered where he got that. I mean, you don't find armories in the middle of nowhere with short black swords.

"Nico, stop," Annabeth said. "Calm down and we can talk it out. We won't hurt you, I swear."

He took a deep breath. "Fine."

My jaw dropped as I turned to Annabeth. She just smirked at me.

"So what do we need to talk out?" I asked as we sat in a circle around a small pit.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him. I heard that the school gave you an injection?"

Nico nodded stiffly. "That's why I'm able to do this." He motioned to the pit and the air.

"You can summon ghosts and create pits?" I said.

"I can control the earth… a little," he mumbled. "And shadows."

The shadows around the classroom got darker, or maybe I was just imagining it.

"I think you can control the dead," Annabeth mused. "Percy told me you've been having dreams?"

"Yeah," he flinched. "Why are you so interested?"

"No side-effects whatsoever?" Annabeth pressed. "I mean, other than the dreams?"

He shook his head.

"Maybe they tested it out on someone," I said. "I doubt it would've worked hundred percent in one try."

"Maybe," she agreed. "But this is Daedalus we're talking about."

"Daedalus?" Nico said, jerking up. "_He_ made this?"

I nodded. "I got injected too, but on purpose."

Nico clenched his fists. "I'm going to kill that guy."

Now, that might not sound threatening, but the way Nico said it made it seem like he was about to march over there and take his guts out one by one. Shadows started to creep toward him and a strange hum filled the room.

"Whoa dude. You have to chill," I said.

"He betrayed Olympus," he said. "He gave Othrys all their secrets."

"Nico, what are you talking about?"

Annabeth met my eye, and I knew we were thinking the same thing—Nico was injected with more than one thing. Something that gave him these thoughts.

"They tested out all those injections on the Olympians," he snapped. "Even my father."

"I thought you didn't know who your father was," I said.

"My father is Hades," he said. He took a deep breath. "Othrys chose certain people and forced them to work in their own respective areas after giving them the injections. They used them as _experiments._ It's no coincidence that Hades has his own branch of mining, funeral organizations, and banks and how Poseidon has his own branch of his whole ocean-related things."

Annabeth sucked in a breath. "I get it now! Olympus and Othrys—they're basing everything off of Greek mythology! _That's_ how we solve this maze!"

"Can someone please elaborate?" I sighed annoyed about the big jump from Greek mythology to the maze.

"Okay," she said, and I knew I was going to regret my request. "So Othrys, I have no idea how they chose the people for injections, but they're all named after Greek deities, you see? Hades, the god of the dead and riches, Poseidon, the god of the sea, Zeus, the god of the skies and all that. And Othrys has their own staff named after Titans like Atlas."

"Oh yeah. Atlas Atlas," I nodded. "Go on."

She rolled her eyes. "All the monsters we've faced are based on Greek monsters too! Like the hellhound. Also the school, they're not really for criminals. They're for people like _us._"

"What do you mean, _us?" _I asked.

"Children of the Olympians," Nico muttered.

Annabeth nodded. "Percy, you're the son of Poseidon, as for me, I'm the daughter of Athena. For Nico, he's the son of Hades, and I'm pretty sure Bianca was too. But I don't know _why_ they're trying to keep us here."

"They want to use us as weapons against our parents," Nico said.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I just do."

She sighed. "So anyway, back to my point. The school is weeding out the others and just letting them go or experimenting on them—like Nancy and Matt for instance."

"What did they do?" I asked.

"They turned Nancy into an _empousa,_" she said. "And they turned Matt into a Laistrygonian. I _saw_ it. So _again,_ back to my original point. And since you two are so distracted, I'll just cut to the chase. So you know the Labyrinth from Greek mythology right?"

We nodded.

"So I'm assuming you guys know the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur," Annabeth said. "Theseus used Ariadne's string to guide himself to the Minotaur. Ariadne's string can guide you wherever you need to go."

"That's great and all, but what are we going to do with that information?" Nico said.

Annabeth looked at me, waiting for me to get the point.

"Chris," I said. "He was mumbling about string."

"It's not a coincidence," Annabeth said. "I'm _certain_ of it. This whole mess is based on Greek mythology."

"But Daedalus said that Rachel would help us," I protested.

"Yes, but she isn't here," Annabeth said. "If you still don't believe me about Ariadne's string, here's something that might convince you."

We looked at her expectantly.

"The mental hospital I sent Chris to," she said smugly. "The nurse who took him in was named Ariadne."

We stayed silent letting the information sink in.

"So let's assume this Ariadne has the string," Nico said. "Do you even know where the hospital is?"

"Yup,"Annabeth said. "Arizona. So what are we waiting for? Let's go."

I glanced at Nico as we stood up. "Nico, you can come with us."

I was hoping he would since he seemed more at ease with our talk though I didn't get everything out of him.

"Why should I?" he said.

"Nico, please," Annabeth said.

"Fine," he said after a minute or two.

My jaw dropped again as Annabeth smirked and stuck her tongue out at me.

Annabeth started leading us out the tunnel and broke out into a run.

"Why are we running all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I just realized," she murmured. "I'm _so_ stupid."

"That doesn't make me feel good, coming from you," I coughed.

"Luke's after the string too. We have to hurry."

"But how will we know if we're in Arizona?" Nico piped up, and we stayed silent.

"First things first," I said. "How do you know he's after the string?"

"I found Chris," she reminded me. "A few number of students disappeared after that little fiasco along with Luke. They're probably working with him or Othrys. So that goes back to Chris who was pretty good friends with Luke, and I found him mumbling about string."

I noticed the way her voice softened when she said Luke as if she still had feelings for that guy. It made me want to throw up.

"And for our Arizona problem?" I asked.

"We can try all the exits we see and hopefully one of them will lead to Arizona," Nico said.

"And the hospital was at a desert. It might get a bit hotter down here as we get close," Annabeth reasoned.

She chose a tunnel made of red dirt leaving us slightly behind.

"So what did they give you?" I asked. "The injection, I mean."

"They gave me two," Nico panted, struggling to keep up.

"Did anything else happen after that?"

"My memories are becoming weaker," he said. "I can't remember my past, and I'm getting these random memories that aren't even mine."

"Like the ones you told us earlier," I said. "Tell me exactly what happened when you got the shots."

He seemed hesitant at first but eventually told me all he knew.

"They gave me the second one in a rush," he recalled. "A different person did it and accidentally injected in the wrong place."

I tried to make sense of that in my head as we tried the exits and popping out at the wrong places at the wrong time. We almost got ran over by a car once and another time I caused a flood in some horse stables with my new water powers.

"It's good," Annabeth said. "We're getting closer. I think."

Nico breathed heavily as we ran.

"Nico, you okay? We can stop if you're tired," I said.

He shook his head. "Don't let me hold you back."

He said it in a strange way as if he was talking about something else too.

After about what seemed like an hour of traveling, Annabeth stopped at a dead end.

"It's a dead end," I said.

Annabeth shook her head. "It's a boulder. It can be an exit. Nico, can you break it?"

He shrugged and clapped his hands. The sound echoed through the tunnel and the boulder cracked and crumbled into dust.

"Nice," I grinned. I turned to Annabeth. "Is this the right place?"

She walked out and looked around the desert. "Yeah. It's near here."

She motioned us to come out and the wind blew in my face carrying sand with it. It was nighttime, maybe around six or seven.

"It's a few blocks away that way," she said pointing to the right. "But it's past dinnertime. Do any of you have money or food?"

I shook my head. "Rachel brought our supplies."

Nico grunted. "I just exited the Labyrinth when I had to get food or water."

Annabeth sighed and pulled out a wallet. "I only have twenty bucks, so nothing _too_ expensive. Any ideas?"

"There's a McDonalds," Nico said brightly.

"All in favor?" I asked, and Annabeth shrugged.

"Sure," she said and we went in.

It must have looked strange; three dirty teens walking into a fast food restaurant at night, but no one questioned us. Nico ordered a Happy Meal and I ordered a double cheeseburger. Annabeth ordered some fries for all of us and a cheeseburger for herself. She quickly paid and went to go save us a table.

"I have a few bucks left," she said. "I think we should save it for something crucial like water or something."

"Sure," I said as a yawn escaped my mouth.

Our order came out and Annabeth went to go get it for us.

"Eat quickly," she said. "I don't know when the hospital closes and I don't want to wait until tomorrow morning."

She sent us death glares that made us choke on our food. We inhaled our food, and I couldn't even tell what I ate. We finished our dinner in less than three minutes and went back outside. Annabeth led us to the hospital.

"I don't know if it'll be safe," she said. "I mean, after everything we've been through, I won't be surprised if there's crazy psychos in there."

She stopped at a huge white building that looked so out of place in the desert. There was no speck of dirt on it with was ironic.

"Nico, maybe you should stay out here," I said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm not a kid Percy," Nico said. "I can go too."

"How about you keep watch for us?" Annabeth suggested. "If something happens or someone shady comes in, alert us with like a ghost or something."

I gave Annabeth a quick _thanks_ with my eyes. I didn't want Nico hurt or possibly even dead because of me. I was probably being paranoid, but I couldn't help it.

He sighed. He probably knew there was no winning Annabeth. "Have fun."

I grinned. "Thanks."

We went inside the brightly lit lobby and a nurse greeted us.

"Welcome!" she smiled. "Welcome to our mental institute. I'm Ariadne, pleased to meet you."


	26. Chapter 26

**I'm updated a lot faster than I thought. I have a oneshot up on my Tumblr, just so you know. I don't think I'll be uploading it on here though.**

**IIII Winter Wolf IIII- Haha. Don't worry. He won't.  
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**CrazyCountryGirl12- They're normal, but they were experimented on.  
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Now, Ariadne didn't seem like the type of person to be working in a mental hospital. She had her hair done in black ringlets and blue eyes. She wore gold hoop earrings and bracelets and reminded me of a princess.

"Oh, so um, you run this place?" I asked stupidly.

Ariadne laughed. "I don't own it, but since my husband, Dionysus, is out, I'm taking over for him."

I couldn't even process that information through my head. _This_ beautiful lady was married to Dionysus, an alcoholic pig. But the fact that Dionysus owned a mental hospital didn't surprise me.

"You're that girl that came by a few days ago, right?" she asked.

A few days? Had it already been that long?

"Yes," Annabeth said. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but were you part of the making of the Labyrinth?"

Ariadne's blue eyes widened as she made the connection.

"We're looking for the string. It's an emergency," I said.

"You two look starved. I'll pack you some things just in case," she said and led us up the stairs. "Tell me what's going on. I'm the only nurse here right now, so there's nothing to worry about."

We quickly gave her a brief rundown as she packed us three bags of food, water, and money.

"My string," she muttered. "Yes it works, but not as accurate as someone with the sight."

"Like Rachel?"

She nodded. "Yes, just like your friend, Rachel." I saw her exchange glances with Annabeth. "It gives you the quickest way out, but not necessarily the safest, and people with strong magic can tamper with it. But it works."

"That's good enough," Annabeth said. "Can you give it to us?"

There was a big explosion outside the hospital that caused the building to shake.

"Oh no," she said. "I guess those people you were talking about are here. You two need to hurry."

"But where's the string?" I asked as dust showered us from the ceiling.

"Chris has it," Ariadne said. "It seems to calm him down somewhat, so I gave it to him. His room in the third one from the right on the third floor. I'll catch up with you two later."

I was going to ask how she was going to hold them off, but Annabeth grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs.

The hospital was huge, almost as big as Goode. The wall crumbled, and snake legged women slithered in.

"Oh my gods, what are those?" I yelled.

"Monsters," Annabeth said and drew her knife. "_Dracaenae_ from the Greek myths. Get ready to fight."

"I can't just kill them!" I said as Annabeth stabbed one through a chink in the armor.

"They're not human and they're out to kill us," she reminded me.

As if on cue, one of them lunged at me, and I quickly drew my sword and stabbed it through her gut. She wailed and fell dead.

More monsters came in through broken windows and we tried to fight our way around them. I was very aware of the dead bodies I was stepping over.

"At least there aren't any human warriors yet," I said.

"They're too valuable to risk. As for monsters, they can just create more and more," Annabeth said. "Next floor."

We found Chris's room and barged in. Chris was sitting in the corner playing with a blue ball of thread.

"String leads the way," he mumbled. "String. String."

"Thank goodness you got up here safely," Ariadne said. She had some dust on her face and clothes but seemed to be okay. "They'll be coming soon. You'd better hurry."

She pried the ball of yarn from Chris's hand. "Come on Chris. I'll give you another ball of yarn, okay? More string for you later."

"String. Get the string," he said and reached for the string.

Ariadne reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a red ball of string. "Here. This for this."

When Chris was preoccupied with the other ball of yarn, Ariadne gave us her string.

"You'll have to find the entrance again. Do you know how?" she asked.

"Yes, thanks for everything," Annabeth said.

Right then, Nico popped out of the shadows and collapsed in front of us.

"Whoa, Nico!" I said. "You okay?"

He coughed. "Yeah. I've been practicing shadow-traveling for a while now. I found an entrance near the sewers. I'll shadow-travel us over there. Grab on."

We held his arms and he melted into the shadows.

I felt like I was falling in a deep dark pit. The wind howled and I felt like my face was peeling off… again.

Then we came out just as quickly from a shadow of a tree. Nico groaned and his eyes rolled up in his head.

"Over there," Annabeth said pointing across the street. Then the monsters came.

"Quick!" I said. "There's no cars. Come on!"

I hoisted Nico on my back and ran across the street. That slowed me down, and the monsters were catching up until they were right behind me. One of them shot an arrow that hit my thigh. I winced.

Annabeth pressed her palm against the top, and it slid open.

"Percy!" she yelled, but we both knew that I wouldn't be able to make it. "Use your powers!"

The sewer. I could feel the water under there. I felt a pull in my gut, and I yelled. Sewer water came blasting out of the entrance and arched over me in a wave. It splashed onto the monsters at high velocity. They started spitting out the sewer water and I quickly made it to Annabeth.

"You first," she said, and I started climbing down. After a few rungs, Annabeth followed.

"Any nectar?" I asked. "Or ambrosia?"

Annabeth looked in her backpack. "Looks like Ariadne get supplies of the experiments too." She pulled out a Ziploc bag of things that looked like lemon bars.

She broke off a piece and fed it to Nico who mumbled and turned in his sleep after eating it.

"Percy, let me see your leg," she said.

"I'm fine," I said. I pulled out the arrow which left a rip in my pants and a stream of blood.

"Nope," she said. "Give me your leg Seaweed Brain."

She opened a canteen of nectar and poured some on my wound. I winced and instinctively grabbed Annabeth's hand. I blushed.

"Sorry," I said.

"Whatever," Annabeth said, and I thought I saw her blush too. She bandaged my leg.

"Do we have any plans after this?" I asked.

"Back to New York," she said. She sighed. "Let's just rest up here for the night. I'll take first watch."

"You sure?" I asked. "If you're tired, I can—"

"I'm fine," Annabeth said. "Don't worry about me."

I gave her a skeptical look but pulled out a blanket from my backpack and fell asleep.

Annabeth woke me up for next watch a few hours later and decided just to let Nico rest. The air started to get chilly and Annabeth huddled up in her blanket. She sat next to me, saying that she couldn't sleep.

"Aren't you tired?" I asked.

She nodded. "But I can't sleep."

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine," she said.

"That's what they all say, but there's always _something _wrong."

She smiled. "Fine, Seaweed Brain. Something _is_ wrong, but well. I don't want you to judge me."

"Why would I do that?" I asked.

"You never know," she sighed. The unsaid name stayed in the air. _Luke._

I cleared my throat. "Yeah. So can you tell me? I promise I won't judge."

"Well, you know how I got into Goode for attempted murder, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, I realized that it wasn't something inputted into my brain. I didn't do that. I was just a problem child that nobody wanted. So I ran away, and they wanted me to be part of the experiment so they caught me, Thalia, and Luke. But that's not my main problem," she said.

"The thing is, I accidentally went to San Francisco through the Labyrinth and I ran into my family," she sighed and closed her eyes. "I don't know how, but my dad recognized me. My stepmom was outraged. She hates me. Anyway, a monster tracked me down and attacked us. I wasn't ready for that, and one of my little brothers broke his arm. I didn't want them to tell me that I was exiled from their little family so I just ran off back into the Labyrinth."

"What are you going to do now?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said miserably. "I never really liked them anyway, but they're the only family I have aside from Athena. And besides, this is more important."

Annabeth made a face when she realized the ground was wet. I hadn't gotten wet because of my new powers, but Annabeth would probably get soaked. She sighed and just tried to fall asleep while sitting. It worked until her head fell on my shoulder.

I felt my face heating up, but I didn't dare wake her.

* * *

"Let's go," Annabeth said once she woke up. "Let's see if this string really works."

I woke up Nico who seemed to be in a better condition than yesterday.

Annabeth dropped the ball of yarn and it started rolling away on its own. We started running after it, and Annabeth screeched to a halt as two walls crashed into each other and then split back apart.

"We have to time this carefully," Annabeth said. "I'll go first."

She waited for the walls to crash again and slipped in while they were separating. She advised us when to move from the other side.

"Now!" she yelled, and we sprinted across.

The walls crashed right behind us, almost clipping my hair.

"That was close," I said.

"There's much worse things up ahead," Nico said.

On that happy note, we continued on our way.

* * *

We almost fell into many traps. Once we almost fell down a sliding pit of crocodiles, and another time we almost got pierced straight through our bodies with spikes on the walls. Then these crazy tree roots strangled us. We got away, but Annabeth got caught by her long hair.

She scowled and pulled out her knife. She cut off her hair where it was being pulled and continued on our way.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Please, Percy. It's just hair. I can grow it back," she said, shaking her head. "It's cut unevenly, but I can ask Silena to trim it later… if we make it."

We chased after the string, and I noticed after a while that the string balled up on the other end and followed us out.

"Here!" Nico said. He climbed up the ladder where the string stopped at and pried open the circular lid.

I collected the string and climbed up. The sunlight blinded me.

"It's New York," Annabeth said. "It's real."

The way Annabeth said it made it sound like we discovered some magical fairy land. But then again, we weren't allowed to go out, and she was in Goode for a long time.

As for me, it was just like I remembered it, but this was a part of New York that I hadn't been to.

"So where are we?" Nico asked. "Like _where_ in New York?"

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But now we know that we can leave the school. We should go back and start bringing the students out."

"Through the Labyrinth?" I asked.

"We have the string," she pointed out.

"What about Rachel and Grover?"

No one answered that.

"We'll find them," Annabeth said.

"They're not dead. I know it," Nico said.

I raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. "Let's find a place to stay or meet up first. Then we can go back and get the others."

"Sounds like a plan," Annabeth said.

Nico lagged behind as we made our way around the streets. We tried to keep a low profile as much as possible. No one really gave us strange looks. I guess that's New York for you.

We moved to a more familiar part of the city, and I recognized my old school. It looked so dirty and small compared to Goode. I wondered if there were any of my old gang members there.

"Let's keep on moving," Annabeth said turning back around. "I think I found a good place."

She ignored my questioning look and turned to a more isolated place. There was only one building there. It was a low brick building which was strange to see.

"What is this place?" I asked, trying to read what it said.

"Hestia's Hearth," Nico said. "I think."

"She's part of the Olympians," Annabeth said. "From what I've heard, she's really nice. Maybe she can help us."

"Annabeth, we don't have enough money. It's probably a five star hotel or something like that," I said.

"Hestia is nice to everyone," Nico said. "Even to me. She's not going to chase us out."

He opened the door and stepped in. Annabeth met my eyes and shrugged.

"Hello," a woman said.

She had brown hair and was wearing a brown dress with her head covered in a shawl. Her warm brown eyes gazed upon us.

"Lady Hestia," Nico bowed.

"Oh, it's you again!" she smiled. "Who are your other friends?"

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

I frowned at him for giving so much information away, but he looked at me reassuringly that didn't reassure me at all.

"I'm guessing you have a story to tell me," she said. "I'm Hestia. Come on in. I'll make you some lunch."


	27. Chapter 27

**Sorry I haven't updated this and my other stories for a while. Writer's block.**

**I think this story will be ending in maybe at like thirty-something chapters, because I just want one battle, and I don't want to write two... Yeah.**

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"I see," Hestia hummed as she gave us plates of salad and chicken. "Are any of you vegan?"

"Nope," I said. "Can I ask how you know Nico?"

"Nico's a sweet boy," Hestia said when he was out of earshot. "He's been through a lot, and I can see where he's coming from. He's nice to talk to."

I thought about that for a second. Every time I tried to talk to Nico, it would always end up ending awkwardly or in a fight. Not the best talking buddy.

We had moved to the dining room and sat around a wooden table. It didn't really look like a hotel, but the food was definitely better than a five-star restaurants. The aura of the hotel just reminded me of home. Or maybe the home that almost everyone has that I had always wanted.

Hestia sat at the head of the table as we started digging in. The food was gone in seconds, but luckily Hestia brought some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I immediately grabbed one, and my heart ached when I ate it. It reminded me way too much of my mom.

"I never really liked Othrys," she sighed. "Even though I'm part of Olympus, I try to maintain good relationships with other companies. I'm usually sent out for meetings or negotiations. We knew what they were doing for quite some times now, but we couldn't make a move."

"Why couldn't you have just said it on the news?" I asked.

She smiled sadly. "I'm one of the least famous Olympians, and so people don't listen to me as often. They wouldn't take me seriously. And plus, since the famous twelve, known as the Council, got tested on too, it was cause a huge mess."

"We need to go back to the school," Annabeth said. "We need to save the others."

I nodded. "And Kronos might be there right now. There's no telling what he might do."

Hestia winced. "Actually, he arrived several days ago."

"What?" I said, and dropped my cookie.

"He didn't make a move as of now, but he will soon," she said.

"We need to leave right now," I said, and got up.

"Wait, but we don't even know where we'll bring them!" Nico said.

"Bring them here," Hestia said. "I'll close my hotel for the week. There are a lot of rooms, and they can room with each other."

"But is that okay with you?" Nico asked.

"Of course," she smiled. "I'll do anything to help."

"Thank you, Hestia," Annabeth said.

"Nico, maybe you should stay here," I said.

"No, I'm going," he said.

"We need you here."

"For what reason?" he shot back.

"We need to try to find Grover and Rachel and alert them," I said. "We don't know where they are and they're a part of this too."

Nico opened his mouth to think of an argument, and scowled. "Fine."

"Percy, here!" Annabeth said. She pressed her palm on a brick, and it clicked back into a tunnel.

"Stay safe," Hestia called.

"We'll try," I said, and we delved into the Labyrinth.

Annabeth unraveled the string and threw it in front of us. It started rolling away at rapid speed.

"Do you know where we'll pop out?" I asked as we ran.

She shook her head. "I'm hoping we'll come out somewhere inside the building near the dorm rooms. I'm not sure when we'll come out either. Hopefully not too long."

The string veered sharply to the left and I almost ran straight into a brick wall. Annabeth took the time to turn back and snicker.

"Shut up, Wise Girl," I said.

"Watch where you're going," she said.

We ducked as an axe swung over our heads. We took a few more turns and jumped into a chute like a slide. We slid out of the other end into a mucky sort of substance that I didn't want to know what it was.

I slid out first and Annabeth landed on my back.

"Ow," I said.

"Sorry," Annabeth said sheepishly.

"How much did you eat at Hestia's?"

She punched me in the subject. "Well, aren't _you_ a gentleman?"

We were standing so close to each other, our faces only a few inches apart. My heart felt funny and it started racing faster.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Almost there. Don't give up now."

The words _give up _sounded sweet in my ears. Why was I doing this? I could just leave the others there and just live happily on my own. I don't have to risk my life for this.

But they were my friends, and I didn't want anyone's death on my conscience. I couldn't leave Annabeth behind either. Annabeth wasn't that different either, and she wasn't complaining.

Annabeth slammed the hilt of her dagger into the wall and it fell forward… only it wasn't Goode.

"What?" I said. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"I-I think so," she said. "I mean, I was thinking of Goode, but…" She trailed off. I never seen her so lost for words.

We were surrounded by clouds, and there was literally nothing around us. It was like a dream.

"Is it a mountain?" I asked.

Annabeth shook her head, mystified. "There are voices over there. Let's go check it out."

We crept quietly on the dirt road. I couldn't tell if we were on a really high mountain or if we were really floating in the sky. After all the things I've been through, it wouldn't be the craziest thing.

"Out of all the places, you just _had_ to take me up to the sky!" a female voice said. "You _know _I'm scared of heights, Luke!"

Annabeth's eyes widened and she squeezed my hand.

I gritted my teeth. Luke was here? That traitor. I looked at Annabeth and wondered if she actually had Goode as her destination in mind when she let go of that string. Maybe she had been thinking of Luke? I clenched my fist.

"Whatever, Thalia," Luke snapped. "You're alive, and you should be happy that you are."

"I'd rather be dead right now," Thalia said in a deadly tone. "I mean, who'd want to be alive for like what—three or four years?—only to be experimented on?"

"Thalia," Annabeth breathed. A tear fell down her cheek. "Thalia's alive."

The voices grew farther and Annabeth pulled my arm. "Come on."

"Wait, what if we get caught?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter!" Annabeth said.

We ran up the trail where it opened up to a bigger clearing with more nothingness. There was a fence blocking the other side, like what the heck? What's the point of that if things can come in through our way?

There were two people; Luke and a girl who looked like a mixture between punk and goth.

"Thanks to you, I've stopped aging physically, and I got these what, weird lightning things?" she yelled.

"You didn't age mentally either," Luke muttered. He took a deep breath. "Thalia, you _have_ to help me. You're the only one I have."

"Right," she said sarcastically. "And I'm supposed to believe you. I remember you were there while they were injecting things into me, and you were just standing there all smug."

"I have monsters on the other side," he warned.

"Why, are you too weak to fight me by yourself?" Thalia said. "Let's see what you can do… besides hiding behind your army."

Luke glared at her and unsheathed a sword that I haven't noticed until now. "You're going to regret this."

"Ditto."

Thalia pulled out a Mace canister and flicked it. It expanded into a spear and she brandished it at Luke.

"You stole that from the lab," he said.

"After being stuck there for a few years, of course I did," she said. She pulled out a Yankees cap from her pocket. "And this too, though it's not for me."

Luke narrowed his eyes. "What is that?"

"Daedalus gave it to me while you were too preoccupied with your 'master,'" Thalia said. "He said to give it to Annabeth. You lied, Luke. You told me she was dead."

Annabeth started sobbing silently, and I hugged her tightly. I made sure we were hidden well behind the clouds.

Luke lunged at Thalia with his sword, but she quickly dodged it. She slammed her spear into his back and he fell face-first onto the ground. She was about to stab him, but Luke quickly retaliated with his sword. Thalia held her ground.

Electricity crackled from her spear.

"Yield! You'll never be able to beat me, Luke!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear at Luke and the electricity blast him in his chest.

Annabeth gasped.

"We'll see about that, Thalia," Luke said.

He raised his sword and the sky rumbled. It suddenly turned dark and I saw a dark shadow in the sky.

"It can't be," Thalia gasped.

Then it lightened again, and Thalia was pushed to the ground with Luke's sword at her throat.

"Are you ready to give up now?" he sneered.

"Never," she said.

"I tried," he sighed and raised his sword for the kill.

"No!" Annabeth said and ran out into the open.

"Annabeth, wait!" I said.

Annabeth shoved Luke out of the way, and Thalia jumped up to her feet.

"Annabeth," Luke said, and his expression hardened. He clapped his hands and the gate on the other side slid up slowly.

"Run!" I said.

Annabeth whirled around, kicking dust in Luke's face.

"Thalia, come on!" Annabeth said, and we ran for it. I turned around and saw the monsters pouring in.

"Back to the Labyrinth!" I said. "It's the only way. But where are we exactly?"

"It's a limbo part of the Labyrinth. Someone else usually stays here, but they kicked them out," Thalia narrowed her eyes. She looked even scarier up close. "So you're Annabeth's friend."

"Uh, yeah."

The monsters were right on our tails. It was like time was slowing down. One of them nocked an arrow and nearly hit me.

"We won't make it," I panted.

"We will," Annabeth said. "Just a little more."

I parried away a strike and stabbed one of the monsters. "I'll hold them."

"Percy, don't," Annabeth said.

I tried to push both of them away, but only managed in pushing Thalia. Or maybe she went on her own because she didn't care.

"Annabeth, you _have_ to."

"You're going to die."

"If you stay, we're both going to die, and Thalia will be killed too," I said. I looked at her straight in the eye. "You don't want that, do you?"

"But…" Annabeth fingered the Yankees cap that Thalia had given her during our run, trying to think of a good excuse.

"Just trust me," I said as the monsters surrounded us. "You can do that much right?"

Annabeth looked like she was going to punch me, but instead she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.

"Be careful, Seaweed Brain."

She put on her cap and disappeared, but it seemed completely normal compared to the kiss. I stood there motionless as the monsters closed in.

I shook myself out of the daze when an empousa jumped at me. I quickly uncapped Riptide and swung through her waist. I kept slashing at the monsters that came too close, but it seemed endless. I looked behind me. I hoped that they got out safely.

I knew I wouldn't be able to kill all these monsters—at least, without being killed myself. My powers, I thought. Water.

But where was the water? I looked around me, but only saw clouds. _Clouds._ They could count as water, right?

I concentrated on drawing the water from them, but resulted in nothing. A hellhound bit my sword arm. I yelled, dropping the sword, and I felt the familiar pull in my gut. Maybe I was hallucinating, but I could hear the sound of ocean waves. I let out another scream, and the water came to me. A huge waterfall came pounding on me and the monsters and I felt myself fall.

Please let Annabeth be safe, I thought, as I plummeted through the sky.


End file.
